CHAPTER ONE
1.0 GENERAL
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
of the Study
Buildings are constructed primarily to
meet one of the human physical needs. Aside feeding, shelter is the next paramount
thing in human life in the hierarchy of human want. Building provides
accommodation for everyman, his belongings, pet and other of his living and
non-living goods and equipment needed for his daily living apart from meeting the
need of shelter, building also provide a form of environmental satisfaction to
man both mentally and psychologically.
According to Jinadu, (1996) in his book
Understanding the Basis of Housing, “building is a form of shelter comprising
of the main structural element such as foundation, wall, floor, door, window
and the roof structure.” A building must be adequately designed and efficiently
constructed in such a way that its provides expected conditions compatible and
appropriate for the activities to be carried out within it on completion, and
also ensure the comfort, piracy and safety of the occupant. The materials with
which the building is constructed must satisfy basic functional requirement of
weather resistance, thermal insulation, fire resistance, sound insulation,
strength and stability, durability and resistance to wear and tear. (Awe,
2007).
It is obvious that building collapse
does not suddenly happened; rather there should be symptoms preceding the
occurrence of such collapse. Consequently, those with poor foundation quickly
manifested with damp walls up to the second floor level. The question is, how
long will the building last before they sink or collapse? Perhaps most
developers and builders after the madly rushing to erect structures in some
parts of the nation, without taking into cognizance the aquatic soil structure,
buildings were erected on poor foundations. Today, these buildings have
manifested serious structural defect. They are all sinking, cracking,
collapsing or standing precariously awaiting demolition.
The efforts
being made to prevent collapse of building was asserted by the Nigerian Council
for Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB) in conjunction with the Nigerian Institute
of Builders (NIOB), has concluded plans to check those incessant building collapse
in Nigerian, rescue workers battled always to reach those still trapped in the
wreckage of the collapsed building. The leader of the Red Cross team in charge
of most rescued mission in every collapsed building says that the rescue effort
have been severely hampered by lack of finance and adequate manpower and
equipments. Adeola (2008) says many building in were constructed with
sub-standard materials and building regulation/codes were not followed.
Alao (2008),
the ministry for Environment, Housing and Urban Development has charged
professionals in the building industry to insist on proper application of
building code in construction. She said that “Government effort was geared
towards providing shelter for all Nigerians she then urged with the council to
place premium on engaging proficient and well trained builders to manage all
building projects.” The minister reiterated the need for the investing public
to familiarize themselves with code to safe guide their building.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE RESEARCH PROBLEM
Unfortunately,
nowadays, buildings are erected indiscriminately due to the increase in the
demand for building. The unbridled show of wealth and affluence by many Nigerians
is a cankerworm eating up the fabrics of our society. Hence, it is possible for
one to acquire marshy land and bribe his way through a host of officials in the
planning authority. This makes it possible for the building to be erected
without the due approval of the plan. Besides, monitoring and evaluation of the
construction and materials used are not done. At the end, there is no official
record of the building in the ministry database. The owner may not even be
known, since the entire actions from the beginning to the end were corruptly
carried out.
The recent collapse of building in metropolis led us
to study why these buildings are collapsing and problems associated with the
collapse of such buildings.
Hence, the purpose of the research work,
it is time to correct the poor development giving the frequency of these ugly
disasters and the agony been caused to families and property owners
1.3 AIMS
AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The aim of this research is to examine the cause and problems of
building collapse in .
To achieve the above, the following specific objectives were considered:
1. To identify the problems
emanating from building collapse
2. To examine the effects of
building collapse on the building construction industry
3. To proffer solution to the
identifies causes and problems
1.4 SIGNIFICANCE
OF THE STUDY
The building and other structures within an environment are subjected
to a variety of operating conditions and their performance are predictable within
limit and considerable margins of uncertainties are taking into account on the
design process. In the developed world, building and other infrastructures are
built to last long and such buildings are not limited by time.
Hence, it is possible to see building spanning
between 100-120 years or more which stands as monuments depicting the history
of the people. A documentary shows a building in , built in the 14th
Century (i.e. 800 years ago) that serves as a palace. It was existing and awesome
touring around such edifices in this regards, to note that colonial building in
Nigeria are not under any treat of collapse. Many buildings constructed under
colonial government shared the same characteristics stability. The reason for
this is simple, rules were followed in erecting such buildings, the colonial
officers in charge of housing and planning ensured that there were no shortcuts
in erecting standard buildings.
If developed countries could provide for
greater returns in terms of lives saved, as for structures failed due to
inadequate design against loads traditionally catered for and often failures
are due to ignorance, lack of experience or research (Kennaway 1984).
The importance of the project work is
geared to save lives and properties from indiscriminate destructions, thereby
making environment inhabitable. For the purpose of this research, if justice
and equity is done in the building sector, definitely, there would be an
absolute eradication of building collapse in .
1.5 SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
The scope of this research is focused on causes and problems of
building collapse with a case study of selected areas within metropolis.
However, this research has being limited
by the following.
1. Lack of proper and adequate
records on building collapse, the causes and problems in made it
difficult to obtain as many as possible information on building collapse.
2. Some properties owners may
not want their property to be used as a point of reference, thereby hidden some
current data
3. Financial constraint
constituted a serious problem in terms of visiting the study areas and doing
other activities.
4. Non-availability of
sufficient time also contributes to the set back of the research work, time
were shared between other responsibilities, mostly academics which post serious
treat to the completion of the research.
1.6 CASE
STUDY AREA
HISTORY
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY AREA
Kwara State of which is the capital was created on the 27th
May, 1967 as one of the twelve states that replaced the former four regional
structure the Northern Western, Mid Western and Eastern regions in the country.
At
the time of creation, the state is comprised of the old
and Kabba provinces of the then Northern Region of and was originally known as
the west central state. For some time, only to be renamed
shortly afterwards to reflect
the local name of its major river, the in the Lokoja area.
In 1967, the land area of
extended from Borgu area in the to
the eastern limit of the present
in the east.
However, further state creation and boundary readjustment exercised in the
country by successive military administrations since 1967 have led to
considerable losses in the land area, as well as human and materials resources
of Kwara State, and these in turn have had their toll on the development
potentialities of the state. In 1991, five local government areas Oyi, Yagba,
Okenni, Okehi and Kogi were also excised form part of
, while the 6th Borgu
local government area was matched with .
The 16 local government areas in
are:
Table 1.6.1:
NAMES OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA IN
|
OKE-OYI |
||
|
9 |
ILORIN WEST |
ILORIN |
|
10 |
ILORIN SOUTH |
FUFU |
|
11 |
KAIMA |
KAIMA |
|
12 |
MORO |
BODE-SAADU |
|
13 |
OFFA |
OFFA |
|
14 |
OKE-ERO |
ILOFA |
|
15 |
OYUN |
ILEMONA |
|
16 |
PATIGI |
PATIGI |
SOURCE:
OF ,
CAP C. 23 OFFICIAL GAZZTE (2008)
1.6.1 LOCATION
Ilorin, the state capital of
is located between latitude 4035E and longitude 802SN. It is a gateway town to the northern and southern parts of . falls within
grassland, Notable trees found in the city include share butter, locust beans
trees, mango tree etc.
1.6.2 POPULATION
With reference to the 2007 population
census, the total number of people residing in was said to be 847,582, we can then
say that the population was increased tremendously, when compared to 1991
population census, which estimate population to be 572,178 people.
1.6.3 CLIMATE
The climate of ,
as a whole is characterized by the two district climatic seasons, the dry
season and the wet season with an intervening cold and dry harmattan periods
which is usually experienced from December-January. has a total annual rainfall from
300mm-1,200mm. the raining season begins from November to end in early March.
The main monthly
temperature
is on the highest from February to June at 350c and lowest in December at 300c.
1.6.4 ETHNIC
COMPOSITION
is dominated by three major groups i.e. Yoruba, Nupe and Baruba. Yoruba as
being the largest ethnic group in this location and are found in and eight local
government areas. The population of
(Beside Ilorin people) comprises ethnic sub-groups from Egba, Ijesha, Tiv,
Fulani, ,
Kogi etc other ethnic groups with lower population but still significance in
the cities social and economic development are Igbo, Edos, Hausa and Egbira.
Although more than 80% of the people of
emirate are Muslims and the other 20% are said to be Christians and traditional
worshippers.
1.6.5 ECONOMIC
ACTIVITIES
Kwara as a whole
is basically an agricultural area. Besides these agricultural and forestry development,
it has enormous real and potential investment opportunities in other sectors of
the economy, especially in commerce, industries and commercial houses such as
Gomola gift shop, Mr Bigg’s, Eat well fast food, JMK supermarket, Doyin group
of company etc. Hotels also grew up fast such as Kwara hotel, Niger Hotel,
Princess Hotel, Gravel guest house etc.
In the field of Act and Culture, the
people are noted for clothe weaving, dyeing and leather work.
More so, some banks are also operating
in the financial sector of Ilorin which include Central Bank, Access bank,
Ecobank, United bank of Africa, Keystone, First bank and other financial
institutions e.g. Nigeria Stock Exchange.
1.6.6 POLITICAL AND
ADMINISTRATIVE HISTORY
The promulgation of the decree of NO 14
of May 27, 1967 divided the whole country into twelve states, for
administrative purposes, Ilorin Kabba and Lokoja province were matched together
and became
and was
made the capital.
The creation of
definitely led to the establishment of many ministries and statutory
cooperation as well as quasi government institutions.
By the time the state fully takes off in
April 1968, thousands of civil servants from Kwara State serving in other parts
of Formal Northern Nigeria were deployed back home. Since is the state capital, some political
buildings and office headquarters were located in the region such as government
house, governor’s office, governor’s house, police head quarters, ministries of
different forms, Kwara state house of Assembly, different agencies and their
headquarters.
1.6.7 OTHER
POPULAR FEATURES
Apart from those mentioned above, Ilorin
also has more institutional properties in stock, such as Kwara State College of
Education, Kwara State Polytechnic, University of Ilorin, Secondary and Primary
schools, both private and public schools, Central mosque, central market,
located at oja-oba, bakoko etc.
On the industrial side, we have Global
soap and Detergents, Kam industries, Tobacco company, which has indeed added to
the list of industries and we also have Kwara Furnitures, sawmill, block
industries, government reservation area (G, R A), state sectariat, NTA, Kwara
Television, Radio kwara, Civil service clinic, parties sectariats etc all these
popular features gives more dignity to Ilorin being the state capital.
1.7
DEFINITION
OF TERMS PROPERTIES
Richmond (1985)
refers to land and landed properties as a bundle of right, which is known as
estate, including all features that are attached to it, building, trees etc it
may otherwise be called real property, real estate or chattel real.
DEVELOPMENT
As defined by statues, the best known being the term planning law in
Europe, America and African, British town & country planning act (1947)
sees development as the act of building, engineering, mining and other
operations in, on, over and under the land or the making of any materials
change in the use of any building or other land, it is also usually called
improvement on land.
FOUNDATION
As explained by Nash, (1968), foundation in building construction
refers to the basement or lower part of a building. It is the subsoil on which
the artificial foundation stands. Artificial foundation is the excavation lump
of concrete or other materials built in wall trenches. The major
types of
foundation are trip, pad, raft/mat and pile & bean foundation.
CONCRETE LINTEL
The simplest way of building & opening is to use a reinforced
concrete lintel. This type of lintel, tend to be rather unsightly so various
methods may be used to reduce the amount of surface of lintel which can be seen
on the elevation of the wall. Lintel is one of a major important part of a
building it plays a very great role in every building (Nash, 1924)
FLOOR
According to Awe, (2007) floor is an horizontal structural element
which carries imposed and life load in a building, floor also divided the
building into storey. Floor helps to prevent damp penetration in rooms, prevent
wilt from growing inside the building.
MAINTAINANCE
According to Ifediore, (1993) maintenance implies works undertaking in
other to keep, restore and improve every facilities i.e. part of the buildings,
each services & surroundings to correctly acceptable standard and to
sustain the utility & value of the structure.
ROOF
Awe (2007) sees the term “roof” as the cover of a building designed
physically to protect the building and content from environmental factors and
hazard such as ra
in, heat,
snow, cold etc. The roof also played aesthetic function in determining the
character of a building
STAIRECASE
According to Awe (2007), they are series of step between floors, staircase
can be strait, quarterly turn, half turn or spiral in design and shape
PRE – CAST
Jinadu (2007) describes the condition when a material concrete is made
at a place different from where it is to be used as pre – cast in other word
such concrete is made at a place and sent to the site to be used for its
purpose.
WALL
According to oyebanji (2001) wall is defined as the part of a building that
is mounted upon a floor with the use of either circled hollow block, red bricks
or mould block. It also serve as a cover for all properties living and non –
living against intrusion, and divides building into rooms.