The Institution of Engineers Rwanda (IER) has called upon government to raise awareness and be more stringent in enforcing the quality of public buildings and observance of construction standards in general.
The call was made after the a one-week inspection of buildings around the City of Kigali, which was conducted by a joint team of the City of Kigali officials and the Institution of Engineers Rwanda.
The inspection, which is done randomly on both already operating buildings and construction sites, found out that one of the most critical problems is lack of awareness of the laws among commercial real estate projects, mainly by local developers.
Fred Rwihunda, the Chairperson of Compliance and Inspection Committee at the Institution of Engineers Rwanda. Photo: Dan Nsengiyumva.
The law determining categorization of buildings and procedures for applying and granting building permits was enacted in 2012.
It dictates that all real estate developers must employ teams of professional, registered engineers for consultation and supervision services of the respective projects.
However, bulk of local construction sites ignore this particular clause in the law.
Fred Rwihunda, the Chairperson of Compliance and Inspection Committee at the Institution of Engineers Rwanda, told The New Times that ignoring the law exposes buildings to numerous risks.
"Many real estate investors do not understand that investing in engineering consultation services, which is stipulated by the law, also cuts cost and guarantees sustainability and quality of buildings,” he said.
When the quality of buildings is poor and standards are not adapted, he added, the public is definitely at risk of sudden death – if the building collapses- and of working under uncomfortable setting.
"The law is eight years old and clear. If it was strictly enforced, most of the issues we have would be solved,” he said.
Rwihunda added that the government, investors and the general public should treat engineering and construction sector an essential aspect of development since it is among the public basic needs.
"Shelter is a human basic need. Just like we care much about food and health security, we should as well care about the safety of buildings, they are our homes and workplaces,” he emphasizes.
Unregistered engineers
In addition to the quality of buildings in Kigali, Rwihunda suggested that the government set restrictive measures against unregistered engineers, to whom he attributes the poor quality of buildings.
Unregistered engineers are not in the institution’s responsibility and therefore are barely held accountable when they go astray their ethics and responsibilities.
"Engineering is an important and fragile profession that needs guidelines just like lawyers and health practitioners. We do not want to see collapsing buildings taking people’s lives in years to come. We can prevent it,” he said.
The institution has close to 2,000 members and are all registered, however, Rwihunda is sure that there is a rather big number of unregistered engineers who are operating across the country.
He suggests that the government oblige all engineers in the profession to register before setting out to help the public.
According to statistics from the institution, they have 1,221professional engineers, 554 graduate engineers, 106 professional technologists, 28 graduate technologists and 13 registered technicians, bringing the total to 1,922.