The Lagos State Government on Tuesday said it was adopting inter-agency collaboration and stakeholders’ engagement in a move to tame building collapse in the state.
The General Manager, Lagos State Materials Testing Laboratory (LSMTL), Mr Olufunsho Elulade, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.
Elulade told NAN that materials testing remained the antidote to eliminating building collapses.
He said the upcoming annual stakeholders conference of the agency will sensitise the public the public on the need for collaboration to address the challenge.
He said the conference, with the theme “The Socio-Economic Impact of Building and Civil Engineering Infrastructure Collapse in Mega Cities’’ will hold on June 16, in Ikeja.
He said the stakeholders expected include the Seven Built-Environment professionals—artisans, developers, research institutions, the academia, Standards Organisation of Nigeria, Manufactures Association of Nigeria, and building material dealers.
“It is like people coming together to find a lasting and holistic solution to building collapse,’’ he said.
According to him data collated after the 2021 edition of the conference showed an increase in compliance to materials testing.
He said that the conference would also give experts opportunity to dissect issues that cause upward surge in building collapses on Lagos Island and roles stakeholders must play to reverse the trend.
He said that Lagos State materials testing laboratory had made testing easy by decentralising its operations across the state and outsourcing some technical and non-technical responsibilities to achieve speed and efficiency.
The general manager said ongoing inter-agency synergy was yielding positive results towards enforcement of construction standards and other development planning and regulations.
“One of our (LSMTL) mandates is to test at every stage or phase of any construction from foundation and as the building progresses till the final stage.
“Even if we missed any stage, we have sophisticated machines that we use to conduct nondestructive test whereby we test all the structural elements including slabs, columns, beams, load bearing walls and others.
“So it gives us the assurance that, if all those things are rock solid, definitely the building will not collapse,’’ he said.
Elulade said the ongoing collaboration between the LSMTL, Safety Commission, Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development and its agencies was compelling builders to respect building regulations in the state.
“There is a lot of information and knowledge sharing among us now,’’ he said. (NAN)