Tanzania: Crackdown on poor construction begins
By Elias Mhegera – Following the collapse of a 16 storey building along the Indira-Gandhi St. in the Dar es Salaam city centre, many construction activities have been stopped in order to pave way for inspections.
collapsed building
The measure, though belated is an attempt to bring back the trust of the people to their government after the horrific episode during the last Good Friday which claimed at least 36 lives.
A visit to construction sites by shout-africa.com has revealed that many structures which were reaching the final stages of completion have been put into a halt until when experts examine them and give a go ahead instruction.
The head of operations during this exercise from the Khoja Shia Ithnasheri Jamaat (KSIJ), Task Force, Shiraz Visram said that there is a need for preparedness for disasters of this type.
He acknowledges that technical know dwarfed rescue efforts, thanks to the equipment from the private sector which helped a lot in clearing the debris and allow for the smooth finding of people who were trapped inside the collapsed building.
Ali Halji the secretary this organization which belongs to the Mosque for the purpose of disaster management was annoyed to see that some unscrupulous people were rushing at the area for the sake of getting iron bars for construction purposes and for the iron scrap business, forgetting that their fellow human beings were caught in struggling for their lives.
four innocent souls that were lost in the tragedy
A caricuture of the Minister of Works John Magufuli caught up in collapsing buildings
The collapse which took innocent lives mainly of the labourers and those of the four children of the Tanzanians of Indian origin who were playing inside the grounds of this nearby mosque have left simmering pain to the already hopeless community of the downtrodden people whose livelihoods lack a coherent guarantee of safety.
After so many noises were made from the various corners of Tanzania, the co-owner of the collapsed building which has 25 shares, the National Housing Corporation (NHC) has maintained very strongly its innocence on the pretext that all construction procedures were adhered to up to the stage of the collapse.
In strong defense of his organization the NHC Director General Nehemia Mchechu said that on February 04, 2007 his corporation signed a contract with M/s Ladha Construction Limited for a construction of a 12 storey building and agreed to give 25 percent shares in the building once completed.
Mchechu defended further, that the contract directed the shareholder to hire a reliable engineer and consultant to oversee the implementation of the project.
These and many other accompanying excuses have not given any relief to the bereaved ones whom still recapitulate on those tragic moments during the Easter Holidays. Indeed bitterness will linger on for quite some time.
Many commentators through their bitter utterances have been pinpointing the NHC and the government in general of negligence.
Relatives of the four children who were playing inside the fence of the mosque just to be pounded heavily by the debris still encounter the painful moments to the extent that even the mosque still remain closed up this moment. Seven of the children were injured in the event
Speaking to shout-africa.com the leaders of the KSIJ-Task Force, the rescuing team said that good number of the people who volunteered in the rescue operation did not know the ABC of rescuing people in such a situation so they had to be trained while the rescue operation was going on as well.
James Mbatia, legislator, consoling some few relatives of the bereaved who remained at the tragic area up to the last moments told them it was no use to harbor bitterness to anyone, but take this incident as a serious lesson.
“It is disastrous to see people losing their lives simply because this nation is not prepared for the tragedies. I am even surprised to see that the immediate action was to arrest the construction engineer rather than bring him to show the rescue plan of the building,” he remarks
Mbatia added that another shortcoming is lack of technical knowhow which slowed the rescue process at this particular incident. “I advised immediately after arriving at the scene that the wall enclosing the nearby mosque should be brought down in order to pave access but no one listened to me,” commented Mbatia.
Mbatia, himself an engineer observed that in many constructions in Dar es Salaam there are no properly set rescues supporting elements.
He acknowledges that he pursued his engineering studies in risk management in construction industry and underground parking facility the knowledge which could have been respected during the rescues but only to find that his plan was accepted eight hours later.
“Health and safety are usually neglected in our constructions it is high time that now we should take these issues seriously,” he remarked.
One Police Officer who preferred anonymity because he is not the spokesperson of his Force claimed that there were all indications that the weakness was in the construction process than anything else.
However, the event did not pass without some lessons as some good Samaritans turned in hundreds with all support including food, clothes, water, Lorries and caterpillars from the Strabag Construction Company, Ultimate Security etc. The rescue operations went beyond religious racial and religious barriers.
One elder who was seated without speech and in sombre mood asked the government to find ways of mitigating the disaster challenges. “We had Mbagala and Gongo la Mboto bombs then came the drowning of ships in Zanzibar and now this collapse, fourth in the span of seven years,” he lamented.
