Building collapse: COREN moves to halt quackery in building industry

The Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN), has taken bold steps to rescue the nation from incessant building collapse. COREN’s initiative if achieved, may put an end to the menace of building collapse in the country.
Speaking during the inaugural meeting of the Task Force for the Production of the Nigerian Concrete Mix Design Manual in Abuja, COREN President, Engr Kashim Ali, said the issue of collapsed buildings in Nigeria,  has been a major subject of discussion in the public domain over the recent past.
Ali added that various reasons have been put up by interest groups with regards to the causes and solutions to the menace, saying as the regulator of engineering practice in Nigeria, COREN has always attributed the problem of collapsed buildings on quackery.
This position, Ali said, was borne out of COREN’s investigations into various cases of building collapse in parts of the country.
He stated that in the attempt to provide direction to the construction industry, COREN has observed that there was no approved document to guide engineers in the design and production of concrete mixes for various applications.
“A number of manuals and guidelines are being used by different groups including the academia. These manuals are very good, having been produced by reputable organisations in many parts of the world.
However COREN feels that the time has come for a manual to be developed that can be recommended for use by the Nigerian construction industry.
In getting to work on this manual, we are not going to reinvent the wheel. Many reliable manuals currently exist and we will not mind even if one of them is selected for domestication, bearing our peculiar circumstances in mind.
COREN will however expect that our manual will stand the test of time and also be capable of universal application. The manual is going to cover all the grades of cement and aggregate types in use in the country. This will enable the engineer to make informed choices as regards the materials to use for a particular project,” Ali said.
While saying that COREN has carefully selected knowledgeable professionals and organisations to serve on the task force, he said the recommendations of the task force will be presented to other committees, while hoping to host workshop before finally publishing the manual for general use.
In his response, the Chairman of the Committee, Engr Charles Uko, said members of the task force were fully aware of the importance of the tasks the committee has been saddled with.
Uko added that the committee was not afraid of the enormity of the work due to the amount of resources at their disposal.
He assured that his committee would bring up a design manual that will not only stand the test of time, but a design manual that would be a reference material for other people.

culled from sunnewsonline