The Red Cross and Building Collapse - Let's Talk About It

THE BRIEF HISTORY OF THE RED CROSS

Please read this brief history of the Red Cross to enable you appreciate the activities of the members of the Red Cross in Nigeria and the world over:

"In 1859 Henry Dunant, A Swiss businessman traveling in Italy, witnessed the grim aftermath of the battle of Solferino.
On his return to Geneva, he wrote an account of what he had seen, A Memory of Solferino, in which he put forward two proposals aimed at improving assistance for war victims:

• to set up in peacetime, in every country, groups of volunteers ready to take care of casualties in wartime.

• to get countries to agree to the idea of protecting aid workers and the wounded on the battlefield.

he first proposal led to the establishment of National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, of which there are over 185 recognized by the International red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. The second proposal set the stage for the drafting of the four Geneva Conventions of 1949, which are today accepted by all States.

The adoption of a single distinctive sign that would confer legal protection on army medical services, volunteer aid workers and victims of armed conflict was one of the main objectives of the five-member committee that met on 17 February, 1863to study Dunant’s proposals. This committee was later to become the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The sign- or emblem as it was eventually called- had to be simple, identifiable from a distance, known to everyone and identical for friend and foe alike.

The Red Cross and Red Crescent emblems are entitled to full respect under international law. However, they are sometimes perceived as having cultural, religious or political connotations, and this jeopardizes the protection they confer on victims of armed conflicts, medical services of the armed forces and humanitarian personnel.
Moreover, until recently, National Societies that did not wish to use either the red cross or thee red crescent could not be recognized as full members of the Movement. This made it impossible for the Movement to achieve universality- one of its fundamental Principles-and raised the prospect that different emblems would continue to proliferate.

To overcome these problems, the idea of introducing an additional emblem that would be accepted to all National Societies and States was put forward. This idea, which was strongly supported by the Movement, became a reality in December 2005 when a diplomatic conference recognized the red crystal as distinctive emblem alongside the Red Cross and Red Crescent."

Before the collapse of the above building in 2014, there have been building collapses in Ebutte-Metta, Lagos State and other parts of the country. In fact I doff my heart to the Nigerian Red Cross for their prompt response to rescue activities, which I was part of then before I was posted out of Lagos State to the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, assisted by some good spirited Nigerians to save lives of people trapped underneath collapsed buildings.

Take a look at the ruins of the above fine building:

The activities of the Red Cross are practical. They have no facilities of their own such as cranes, fuck-lifts and others, except their physical strength and brains, gained over years of constant training, courses/education of members, seminars and conferences. These were the only equipment available to them and they achieved so much at that time, and every member of their group were dedicated to the voluntary activities they were called to undertake and enjoyed being of help to people in need till today. See a few of their activities then.

Red oo! Cross oo! This is the Red Cross slogan.

Activities of the Red Cross

Members are busy here searching for victims trapped under the rubles and after rescue; they are carrying out resuscitation process on a rescued victim on the 3rd picture, which is a part of Red Cross functions.

Randomly Picked Building Collapses Around the World

At first, I thought that building collapse is peculiar to Nigeria alone until recently, when I read some articles on building collapses in the following Countries of the world:

1. East London, England - May 16, 1968 - 4 died out of 260 people died
2. Skyline Plaza, Virginia, USA - March 2, 1973 - 14 Construction Workers died
3. Royal Plaza Hotel, Thailand - August 13, 1993 - 137 Died
4. Sampoong Dept Store,
   Seoul, South Korea - June 29, 1995 - 502 Died
5. Singapore - March 15, 1986 - 50 people Died
6. Highland Towers, Malaysia - December 11, 1993 - 48 Bodies were recovered
7. World Trade Centre, USA - September 11, 2001 - 2,996 people Died
8. Katowice Trade Hall, Silesia - Poland - January 28, 2006 - 65 People Died
9. Lotus Side Comp, in China - June 27, 2009 - 1 worker fell to his death
10. New Delhi, India - November 15, 2010 - 67 People Died
11. Three-High-Rising Office - Building, Rio, Brazil - January 26, 2012 - 4 dead, 17 Missing
12. Seoul, South Korea - May 27, 2015 - Many lives were lost
13. Nairobi, Kenya - May 2, 2016 - 33 People died
14. Mumbai (India) - July 25, 2017 - 14 lives were lost
15. Lagos, Nigeria - July 26, 2017 - 8 lives were lost
16. Mumbai (India) - August 31, 2017 - 21 lives were lost
17. Mumbai (India) - September 1, 2017 - 33 lives were lost
18. Mumbai (India) - September 1, 2017 - 65 lives were lost

There are more building collapse but space nay not permit us to display some of these buildings, especially the most recent ones. Please note that till tomorrow, buildings are still collapsing. The worst is that buildings under construction still collapse and kill its construction workers or even Site Engineer(s).

What are the causes of Building Collapse in our Society?

1. Weak and Inadequate Foundations

Investigators had identified weak foundation to be one of the reasons that could lead to building collapse. For instance the building constructed in a swampy area should be requires very strong foundation than the one constructed in a solid ground. The opposite is usually the case because someone somewhere had decided to maximize his profit to the detriment of the teaming members of the society who would be occupying these buildings after construction.

Investigators had equally identified inadequate foundations for the collapse of a four-storey building in northern Rwanda in 2013 and killing six people.

1. Use of substandard materials

African Organization for Standardization, whose organization met this year in Nairobi to discuss why so many African buildings collapse had stated that materials used for construction of buildings are just not strong enough to withhold the load in the building.

Hermogene Nsengimana of African Organization for Standardization suggested there is a market for counterfeit materials to the extent that scrapped metal is used instead of steel.

Sometimes there are cases of counterfeiters faking authentification certificates. All these are in a bid to cut costs.

1. Mistakes on the Part of Workers

Even when workers are given the right materials to make the concrete, they mix them incorrectly, says Mr Ede.

This results in concrete which is not of the sufficient strength to hold the load.

He accuses developers of cutting costs by employing unskilled workers who are cheaper than trained builders.

This is one of the reasons put forward by civil engineers' Henry Mwanaki Alinaitwe and Stephen Ekolu on why a building in Uganda collapsed in 2004.

Their research also shows that the workers misunderstood the mixing ratios of the concrete and this error cost a lot of lives.

It suggested that people used wheelbarrows instead of using measuring gauges to measure cement.

The five-storey BBJ new hotel collapsed in construction and 11 people died as a result this lack of foresight and human errors.

The President of the Nigerian Institution of Structural Engineers, Oreoluwa Fadayomi in Nigeria's The Punch news site noted that "even bricklayers and even technicians call themselves engineers”, which sometimes lead to some of these human errors.

To those professionals who want to save money on materials, it is advised that they should trade with caution as their action could result to: "Penny wise and pound foolish".

1. The load is usually heavier than expected

Some building collapses could be as a result of the loads beyond the strength of the building, and this scenario could be compared to asking a baby to carry a heavy box, certainly: "The baby will not be able to withhold the strain." However, even if the foundations and the materials are strong enough for what they were originally built for, there may be a change, particularly when extra stores are added.

However, if a building was designed to be a home and is then converted into a library where boxes and boxes of books are piled up, the building may strain under the weight.

In March an Up -market Apartment Block which had more storeys than planned collapsed in Lagos, killing 34 people, the Guardian reported.

This came two years after a church accommodation for the famous preacher TB Joshua collapsed, also, authorities said, because it had more floors than it could hold. In that case, more than 100 people lost their lives.

1. Non-tested strength of a Building

At all points of construction, the strength of the building should be tested. Engineers have to be strict and policed. However, "The law says you must test, so It is the enforcement of the law that is the problem," I believe. Yes! That's a big problem if at every stage of construction there is someone with a strong motivation to save money or take money. It should be born in mind that when a building collapses, it is a huge money that is lost.

1. Corruption and Greed major causes of building collapse

In conclusion, corruption and greed are other causes why buildings collapse. The general principles of building delivery have processes that don’t have to short circuit. There are pre-design, design, construction and post-construction stages, which have to do with renovation or pulling down a building if there is a defect. Many factors are responsible for building collapse; although some are natural but Nigeria is blessed; it has not been witnessing earthquakes, so Nigeria’s situation cannot be attributed any natural dissaster. Design problems could be responsible; it could be that the buildings are improperly designed or properly designed but not properly constructed.

TAKE A LOOK AT THIS BUILDING STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION

This building is still under construction, yet it is tilting to one side already. If we should use the above building as a case study, you will agree with me that building collapse is a not natural disaster but manmade.

This calls for government at all levels, the Society of Engineers, we Steemians, all human society to stand by the truth and condemn this act and sanctions meted to defaulting engineers and contractors to serve as deterrent to others. This post stems from the fact that nobody knows a solid building when it is completed, painted, decorated and ready to be occupied.

It is important that owners of buildings should make out time to supervise or delegate a reliable site engineer to ensure that their hard earned money invested to building construction does not go under the drains as this will amount to penny wise pound foolish.

To be fore warned is to be fore armed. My prayer is that none of my steemians will fall victim to any building collapse caused by any of these greedy and corrupt engineers and contractors. Amen.

Join me in saying AMEN to this and I solicit your contribution to this all important post because, life is precious and cannot be regained once lost.

image source: [GOOGLE]

Thanks for contributing.