By Kingsley Adegboye

Stakeholders in the built environment industry have been told to  adopt a change of attitude in order to nip in the bud the incessant collapse of buildings in Lagos and other parts of the country.

This advice came from  experts who spoke at a one-day workshop organised by the Building Collapse Prevention Guild (BCPG) for concreting managers/artisans in Lagos State.

The highpoint of the event was the practical demonstration of the standard mixing of sand, granite, cement and water ratio for concrete works for various building types and columns by the professionals.

Some of the concrete managers and artisans who spoke during the event, said the workshop has enlightened them on the need to do things right to prevent structural failures.

The Lagos’ Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Mr Toyin Ayinde who spoke at the workshop, said there was need for continuous education and enlightenment of the public on the building process in other to tackle the high occurrence of  building collapse. He charged professionals  concrete workers and other artisans to cultivate the right construction culture.

Ayinde also called for the strengthening of the Standards Organisation of Nigerian, SON to monitor the standard of building materials in the country.

He said, “In order to tackle the incidence of collapse, there must be prosecution of professionals/developers who move to site without development permit and engage in other sharp practices”.

“The commissioner reeled out some of the processes the Lagos State government has put in place to check collapse of building especially the establishment of the Lagos State Building Control Agency LASBCA..

He said, “Collapse of building is an ill wind that blows no one any good. It is in the light of this that the Building Control Agency was created to combat collapse of buildings. The agency has since a couple of months swung into action.”