The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
On a building, Eng. Alex Turihohabwe, the Chairman Uganda Association of Consulting Engineers (UACE) says, the role of the engineer is to carry out designs to establish how the building will stand and consider pressures such as wind.
“As you design, it’s paramount to look at what kind of materials to be used. The engineers determine what kinds of materials are good for which area.Even when I talk about aggregates, we determine what type of aggregates needed for a particular area? ”.
KCCA is mandated to verify the measurements taken by engineers and provide an approval for work to start. However, what these officials and experts describe is what is “supposed to be or the ideal”. In reality, seeing KCCA official coming to a site to esta
blish whether work is going on as planned or whether it’s complete and ready for an occupation permit is not something that happens often. This is why Turihohabwe tells the Independent, “KCCA has a problem”.
Blaming KCCA
When she visited the collapsed site, KCCA Executive Director Jennifer Musisi told journalists that Kyaseka did not comply with the physical planning laws and hired people to do work without a permit. “When the building stalls, their plan expires after two years, after that you are supposed to submit structure drawings and plan to show whether the building is still sound enough to continue being constructed,” she said. She, however, did not mention a thing about whether KCCA had ever inspected the building before it collapsed even when people’s lives were being put in danger as they operated on the unfinished site.
“Occupying buildings before being complete is illegal. The same applies to residential but most of us stay on building sites without anyone condemning it. Its laxity on the side of the authority,” Turihohabwe says.
What is common among all buildings that have collapsed recently according to him is that contractors are not concerned about the materials used and how one mixes them. He says some hire quacks to build.
“Everybody is taking himself to be an engineer. Such folks are fond of changing recommendations done by the real engineers. For instance after a slab is set, it should be left to cure for about 28 days but who waits for this long?”Turihohabwe says.
For him, the ideal would be that an engineer should have a certificate of practice before being allowed to work on any site. Unfortunately, there is no law to support this. He however advises tenants to always ask for an occupation permit as this gives a guarantee that KCCA has approved.
For now, as we wait for KCCA’s solution, Architect Turyahabwe offers hope. He says, as a preventive strategy, they will carry out building surveys and continuously prepare lists of projects and construction sites that will be deemed risky to the general public for related action by various authorities.
