Kandy tragedy: Urgent action needed to regulate building industry

By Gamini Ranasinghe
Chartered Engineer
gamini_r@hotmail.com

The building disaster that killed a family in Kandy, a few weeks ago, is surely the result of the callous behaviour of a few officials who value the money above human lives. As any other current social issue in Sri Lanka, this serious offence will be forgotten with the passage of time. With the lack of effective and workable regulations and other factors such as the scarcity of buildable land in urban areas, the problems may worsen further. From time to time you may hear such incidents, but unless it affects you it will be just a problem of others. Malpractices in the building industry will continue.

If we are to prevent the recurrence of such disasters, it is of utmost importance for the relevant authorities to find ways and means of tackling this problem without dragging their feet any further.

When you look into the main causes of the aforesaid disaster or any other building failure in the country the following stand out:

(a) Inadequacy of Effective Building Regulations

At present, there is no statutory Building Act applicable to the whole country unlike in many other countries including some in Asia. For example, countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Hongkong and even Vietnam have well-drafted building Acts to regulate the construction industry. The main purpose of such regulations is to provide safe buildings for human occupation. In this respect, first and foremost the country needs a proper building Act. When approved by Parliament it will be a statutory document, normally called a Building Act, which all building works in the country will have to adhere to.

Such a Building Act shall address the following purposes among others:

Providing for the clear regulation to be adopted for building work, and the setting of performance standards for buildings to ensure that

(i) People who use buildings can do so safely and without endangering their health and safety

(ii) Buildings have attributes that contribute appropriately to the health, physical independence, and well-being of the people who use them

(iii) People who use a building can escape from the building in case of a fire or a likely physical failure

(iv) Identifying the accountability of owners, designers, builders, and local authorities who have responsibilities for ensuring that the building work complies with the approved building standards.

The items (i) to (iii) address the principles to be followed in the design and construction of a building to suit human habitation. The minimum design and construction expectations encompassing all the aspects of a building, from planning through architecture, structure, fire and building services shall be clearly identified explicitly in the building Act. The Building Act shall refer to the minimum standards to be followed in each area of design and construction of the buildings.

Accountability identified in item (iv) is directly tied to the responsibilities of the designers and builder and the local authority concerned. Unless it is a minor building, it is unlikely that the local authority will be a party to design and construction supervision. Under such circumstances, to make each process accountable, the Chartered Architects and Engineers practising in the respective fields shall submit the design certificates (producer statements) for the work they have produced. Such document shall certify the compliance of their design to the particular clauses of the building code. The purpose of such document is to indemnify the owner from defects and dangers resulting from negligence or oversight in the design stage. The party who submit this document need to produce an insurance policy to a minimum value equivalent to the work he has undertaken. The producer statement/ design certificate shall accompany the application for the building permit.

If the designer is not capable of submitting a design statement or a producer statement, the local authority shall appoint an external consultant to carry out a review of the design documents. If the documents comply with the relevant clauses of the building code, the checker needs to issue a design certificate/producer statement that will also indemnify the owner of the building. In a situation where an external consultant is involved, the fees payable shall be agreed prior to the commencement of the process.

The supervision of construction of the specifically designed items shall also be carried out as said for the design stage. The certifying chartered engineer or architect as appropriate to the works needs to issue a compliance certificate(s) on the completion of the project. He should carry an insurance policy to indemnify the owner from any financial loss incurred during the life span of the structure. When the applicant cannot obtain the services of a chartered engineer to supervise the construction works, the process of obtaining the services of an external engineer needs to be adopted as at the construction stage.

The Building Act shall clearly note that depending on circumstances, the person responsible for any inadequacy in the design and construction stage of a building may also face criminal charges in the countries judicial system

(b) Non-clarity of minimum standards to be adopted in the design and/ or construction

At present, in many aspects of the building design and construction, the minimum standards to be adopted are not clearly defined. Hence, the design professionals may apply many different international standards as per their training and exposure. The Building Act shall identify the respective building standards that need to be applicable to all types of structures. Such standards shall cover both the building and construction processes. These standards shall be identified with the concurrence of local professional bodies and institutions. The standards identified in the Building Act shall cover architectural, structural and utilities and building services aspects among others. If local standards are not available, the suitable international standards shall be identified.

(c) Statutory requirements to use skilled labour

Training of building skills are outside the Building Act. However, the building Code may make reference to the right standards of skills needed in each trade. The present acute shortage of labour with right skills to carry out the works in almost every building trade is obvious. The building failures may be a direct result of this problem. To prevent the occurrence of such disasters, the authorities concerned must consider it their duty to provide right training and certification of workers required in the building industry.

(d) Simple Buildings

There will be simple structures that need not to involve the procedures identified under Item (a) The Building Act shall clearly set out the physical and monetary limits of such works. It shall also set out rules, regulations and responsibilities the local councils need to follow when they are directly involved at the planning or design or construction stage of a project.

The formulation of a Building Act and a Building Code for Sri Lanka is the prime and urgent responsibility of the central government. I believe that the Urban Development Authority (UDA) needs to play a pivotal role in such a process. The most salient aspect here will be the composition of the team and committees who will take the responsibility for drafting documents of national importance. Representatives of professional bodies connected to the building industry in the areas of Architecture, Planning, Engineering and Building Industry are required play major roles in the drafting of such documents.

Since such documents become statutory when approved, the input of the Attorney General’s Department will be required throughout the process. The government may solicit the services of experts from our neighbouring countries if need be.