EVALUATION AND IMPACT OF INCESSANT RESIDENTIAL BUILDING COLLAPSE IN LAGOS METROPOLIS

Background of Study

The place and priority of buildings to man’s existence and survival as he lives and carries out his activities within them is important. Despite this fact, maintenance of the existing housing stock in habitable condition still remains a great problem to be solved in Nigeria among other countries in the World, (Olagunju, 2011). Buildings, either as temporary, permanent or monumental structures needs to be properly planned, designed, constructed and maintained to obtain the desired satisfaction, comfort and safety. The desired satisfaction, comfort and safety tend to be threatened when the building failed to perform any of its principal functions of satisfaction, safety and stability. Building failure may be as a result of a total or partial failure of one or more components of a building structure, though a common phenomenon all over the world is more rampant and devastating in the developing countries. The Rana Plaza tragedy that occured on 24 April, 2013 where an eight-story garment factory collapsed in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh will quickly come to mind. The building’s fall which killed nearly1, 200 people and injured thousands of others was not caused by an earthquake or a terrorist attack, but rather by poor construction and a lack of oversight.

The frequent rate of building collapse in Nigeria in the past few years and recently had become very worrisome mostly in Lagos state, this have led to the lost of many lives and properties. A visit to the collapsed scenes were as revealing as they were pathetic and one could not but wonder why such contraption could have been allowed to stand or to what extent people can go to cut corners at the expense of respect for safety and respect for lives. Unfortunately, there are still a number of buildings of similar circumstances dotting the skyline of many cities in Nigeria. That building collapse incidence are still regularly occurring despite increasing diffusion of engineering knowledge over the years calls for some re-examination of development in building production and control process (Dimuna, 2010). Development and construction of property is very necessary to every individual in life, as such, many individuals involve themselves in construction of property for either personal uses or for investment purposes. In Lagos State, every investor will like to acquire a property due to the rapid economic development and nature of investment, while some are of prestige. No investor or property owner will be happy to see his/her building collapse. Therefore, the need to follow the required due process before embarking on development of property is important.

Building collapse does occur as a result of greed, incompetence and corruption on the part of the contractors and developers in building industry. The regulating authorities and concerned professional bodies need collaboration to ensure adherence to building regulations in Lagos State (Chika, 2008). The exponential population growth and the consequent productive activities needed to sustain mankind forces the demand to be more pressing. The quest to meet up with this demand has led to different approaches of realizing the housing and infrastructural development some genuine and some fake, which lead to structures of different quality. When the quality of these structures fall below certain standards, structural failures are inevitable. In recent years, a lot of failures are being experienced among the existing structures and those under construction. The failure rate has become as rampant that we have virtually lost count of the number of these disasters. In a normal set up, failures are not expected within the projected lifespan of structures. But due to the imperfections in the actions of human beings and the existence of so many other external factors that influence the safety of structures, failures do occur (Ede, 2010). Generally, structures do fail over time as a result of human factors such as negligence, design flaws, ageing, material fatigue, extreme operational and environmental conditions, accidents, terrorist attacks and natural hazards. But the causes of building collapse in Nigeria can be traced to abnormal factors not obtainable in many other nations.

The Lagos State Government identified the principal causes of collapse within the Lagos areas as: deficient foundations, inadequate steel reinforcement, poor materials and workmanship and inexperience professionals, hasty construction, no soil test, greed, poor supervision and non-adherence to the building codes. As these negative facts occur in the Nigerian built environment, new emergencies continue to emerge in the world. Today, the world is facing a lot of other more serious man-made and natural crises than the type being faced in the Nigerian built environments. One of the principal challenges confronting the world today is the global climate change caused by the depletion of ozone layer. Our coexistence with this phenomenon is a reality as virtually most of the world crises and emergencies are linked to that. Our ecosystem is not adapting naturally to the stresses caused by excessive population growth and the consequent increase in human activities (Rudrappan, 2010).

Research was carried out by (Bamidele, 2011) and (Fadamiro, 2009) on the causes of building collapse in Nigeria and identified the following five (5) major causes: natural phenomenon, design error, procedural error, sub-standard material, poor workmanship, the lack of maintenance, the abuse of use of building.

Thus, this study strive towards examining residential building collapse in Lagos metropolis with a view of identifying the causes, effects and proffer solutions.

1.2   Statement of the Research Problem

In the building industry today especially in Lagos, building collapse has been one of the major problem faced by both the private and public developers, whether for personal use and for investment purposes. Lagos metropolis is a city where building collapse occur frequently and has the highest number of building collapse incidents that claimed about 64 lives between 1982-1996 (Dimuna, 2010).

In the past fourty six  (46) years (1974-2019), Lagos State has recorded quite a number of cases of building collapse in areas such as Ebute-Metta, Lagos-Island, Mushin, Oshodi, Maryland, Ojuelegba, Ikeja, Agege, Idumota, Ketu, Central Lagos, and Surulere. This has posed a very serious challenge to those in the building industry, the government and the individuals who are into property development in

Lagos State and the country at large.

The worrisome development and incidents throw the question that, what might be the cause(s) of building collapse in the state? Several factors have been associated with this, some of which are negligence, greed, deficient foundations, inadequate or faulty steel reinforcement, hasty construction, no soil test, poor supervision and non-adherence to the building codes (Ede, 2010). All these aforementioned problems and question revolves around the ultimate question that; when will developers in Nigeria begin to follow the appropriate steps and processes before embarking on development and when will the building regulation be standardize by government? If all these are put in place, the problems of building collapse would be reduced to the barest minimum.

1.3   Reasearch Aim and Objectives

The aim of this research is to evaluate the cause and impact of incessant residential building collapse in Lagos metropolis in order to proffer solutions and approaches for a safer built environment in Lagos metropolis.

The objectives of this study are to:

1. examine the causes of residential building collapse in Lagos metropolis.
2. identify the impacts of residential building collapse in Lagos metropolis.
3. identify the remedial measures, approaches or solutions to residential building collapse in Lagos metropolis.

1.4   Research Questions

1. What are the causes of residential building collapse in Lagos metropolis.
2. What are the impacts of residential building collapse in Lagos metropolis.
3. What are the remedial measures, approaches or solutions to residential building collapse in Lagos metropolis.

1.5   Justification of the Study

It is with great hope and expectation that this study will provide more information for the following:

The results of this study will educate the general public on the causes and effect of building collapse on properties in Lagos State with a view of reducing the issues of building collapse in Nigeria.

The outcome of this study will guide the Government and policy makers on the ways to make and implement policies that will reduce the rate of building collapse in Nigeria.

This research will also serve as a resource base to other scholars and researchers interested in carrying out further research in this field subsequently, if applied will go to an extent to provide new explanation  to the topic.

The outcome of this study can be of considerable value in promoting sound methods to enhance the reduction of building collapse on the negative effects of lives and properties.

1.6   Scope of Study

This study on the evaluation of residential building collapse in Lagos Metropolis will cover Lagos Island Local Government due to the record of building collapse in the area and carefully examine the causes and effects of such.

Fig. 1: Map of Lagos metropolis showing spatial distribution of collapsed buildings.

            (AyotundeOlawande Oni, 2010)

The emphasis on residential buildings is not meant to imply however that collapse do not occur on other types of buildings, it instead recognises the prevalence of building collapse on residential structures in the study area.

1.7   Limitations of Study

In the course of this research work, few limitations were encounterd which include: the non-availabilty of accurate data and record of collapsed residential buildings by the Government to aid proper research, limitations also include the non-challantatitutude of respondents in filling the administered questionaire.

Also, availabilty of finanace geared towards the research appears to be a limitation.

1.8   Study Area

According to Oni (2009), Lagos is the largest city in Nigeria with the estimates of its  population varying considerably but generally range from  to 17 - 22 million people. it  is the largest city in Africa located at  6°34′60″N, 3°19′59″E along the West African coast. It is the former capital city of Nigeria  replaced by Abuja on 12th December, 2012  but remains the commercial centre of Nigeria.

The lagos metropolitan area spreads over  much of Lagos state, which itself covers an  area of approximately 3,345 square kilometres. It is located on four principal islands and  adjacent parts of mainland, the islands are  connected to each other and to the mainland  by bridges and landfills, with major sections of  the metropolis that include the old city serving  as the commercial district on western Lagos  Island. Ikoyi Island is situated east of Lagos Island and joined to it by a landfill; while  Apapa is the chief port district located on the  mainland, other components of the metropolis  are Victoria Island, industrialized Iddo Island consisting of mainland suburbs, Ebute Meta,  Yaba, Surulere, Ajegunle, Shomolu, Agege,  Mushin and Ikeja (Oni, 2008).

Figure 2 is the map of Lagos metropolis showing the component Local Government

Areas.

Fig. 1.2. Map of Lagos State Showing the Local Government Areas

Source: Lagos State Ministry of Lands & Survey.

The study area has witnessed rapid growth  in demand for all types of properties, especially  during the era of economic boom of the 1980s, developers and owners attempted to meet  shortage in supply of properties through direct construction of new structures or by redevelopment of existing ones. In meeting soaring demand for properties, many residential properties approved for one storey were converted to  high rise structures (Adediji, 2006). The rush  for investment in real estate during the period  partly accounted for great activities in the construction period, with many construction activities lacking proper monitoring.

1.9   Definition of Terms

Below are the terms used in the course of the research work, they are defined as follows;

BUILDING COLLAPSE: It is the failure of building that leads to the breakdown of the building structures due to old age, design error, faulty construction, foundation failure, overloading, inadequate steel reinforcement, poor building material and lack of maintenance. Excessive rainfall and poor drainage systems pose a serious problem to structures along the Nigerian coastlines. It is a common sight to see sinking old building around Lagos and within the coastal areas due to water related problems and deficient foundations, this is also applicable to many new structures as they manifest the same problem while under construction (Ede, 2010).

BUILDING:  A building is an enclosed structure which consist of wall, door, window, foundation and roof.

SUB-STANDARD MATERIALS:  These are the type of materials that are below the prescribed standard or required standard. These are non-standard materials or less quality materials that are used for the construction of buildings that lead to failure of the building or collapse of such building.

BUILDING DEFECT:  These are failures occurring on a building or structure, it is also known as a structural factor as a result of mistakes in design of specification that can lead to the collapse of a building which include: peeling paint, defect in plaster or rendering, cracking walls, termite attacks and unstable foundation.

PROFESSIONAL IN THE BUILDING INDUSTRY: These are the various professionals that are involve in the process of property development from inception to the delivery stage. They include: Architects, Builders, Land Surveyors, Quantity Surveyors, Town Planners, Engineers, Estate Surveyors and Valuers. They are trained and have become specialists in their various fields.