GULU – Gulu City Council has earmarked Shs 500 million for the construction of a laboratory to test building materials as the authorities battle the use of substandard materials in the building and construction industry.
The money to be used in building the laboratory is part of Gulu City’s Shs 48.7 billion budget for the 2022/23 financial year that begins on July 1, 2022.
The city’s engineer Christo Balmoi told theCooperator on Friday in an interview that the proposed laboratory would be used to test all the construction materials in the city in a bid to counter fake products on the market.
“We have issues with standards and specification of steels and we are concerned about the buildings which are not long-lasting,” Balmoi further explained.
The City Mayor, Alfred Okwonga noted that they are overwhelmed by the unplanned settlements as developers bypass the physical planning processes and guidelines.
Okwonga revealed that the council has released its 2022/2040 physical planning for the city, which he said would be approved later this year to uphold the standard of infrastructural development.
Meanwhile, the city council summoned all the engineers for the first-ever city engineers’ conference over the weekend to discuss the proposed physical planning ahead of the approval.
The Nwoya district civil engineer Albert Oloya commended the council for the approved plan of the laboratory which he said will help to maintain the standards of the infrastructural development.
Police recently sealed off Golden Gate Hotel in Gulu City as the building developed multiple cracks. Preliminary investigations, among others, reveal that the former Gulu Municipal Council did not supervise the project, which gave a leeway to the developer to do what he wants, without going by the approved plan.
It should be remembered that On October 2, 2013, government brought into force the Building Control Act to ensure decent, safe and planned building structures. Under the same act, the Building Review Board and Building Committees were instituted to execute functions in-line with the objectives of the act.
The act empowers the Building Review Board and the Building Committees to stop any construction operation that is found not to be in compliance with the regulations. The act also regards any omission, commission and negligence of an individual that leads to a building accident punishable by law.
However, non-compliance to the laws and regulations is a root cause of many of the building collapses across Uganda.
Meanwhile, advisors say building authorities should consider a phased approval of building works as a way to ensure that building developers adhere to the laws and regulations all through the building process. “This can however only be achieved if the financial and resource capacity of the building authorities is increased,” they say.
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