Report: Govt inspectors caused collapse of Dar building

By Emmanuel Onyango

Twaweza

Report findings on a study carried out on a 14-storey building that collapsed on March this year at the intersections of Indira and Asia Streets in Dar es Salaam has established that government building inspectors are largely to blame for the cause of accident that claimed the lives of 36 people.

Research by an independent agency known as ‘Listening to Dar report’ which works under the umbrella of an NGO known as Twaweza issued its findings at a press conference the city yesterday.

The agency issued the findings after having worked on a study titled “Building Safety in Dar es Salaam” for the last eight months. The purpose of the study was to assess the perceptions of the people on the safety of buildings in the city of Dar es Salaam.

Briefing journalists, a researcher and a media liaison officer of the agency, Thomas Maqway, said the research report explores what citizens think and know about the accident, who they are blaming and whether they trust that tragedies like this can be prevented in future.

He further noted that the report was based on individual interviews with 333 respondents in all three districts of Ilala, Temeke and Kinondoni in Dar es Salaam region, all of whom were asked to give their opinions to find out who was mainly responsible for the accident.

Maqway was on the view of the fact that, in the aftermath of the disaster, public discussion was dominated by lots of questions about who should be held accountable, it’s from this point of view that, his agent explored the perception of Dar es Salaam citizens, respondents were asked who they thought was mainly responsible for the accident.

He clarified his point with the supporting data which showed that 47 percent of the respondents maintained that government building inspectors were to blame. The statistics also showed that 32 per cent of the respondents blamed construction companies.

He also noted that 18 percent of the respondents threw their blames to the municipal authorities, while three percent of them blamed the construction workers, a large number of whom were mostly labourers.

Other findings show that nine in ten respondents had heard of the accident, and that out of those who had heard about the accident, two in ten were reported to know someone who was either injured or killed in the accident.

It has been noted that, considering the total number of victims, this figure seems disproportionately high and is probably best explained by respondents also recounting stories of victims that they had heard of, rather than of only those they knew personally, reads part of a report.

On 29 March 2013, that fateful Friday morning Dar es Salaam residents were gripped with panic when a highrise apartment under construction in downtown Dar es Salaam collapsed, killing at least 36 people and wounded many more.

The disaster was the latest in a series of fatal building collapses that struck the city in the past few years.  The building was owned by Raza Huseein Damji with the National Housing Corporation (NHC) having 25 percent shares in the project.

The probable cause of the collapse has been suspected as shoddy designing of the building, as well as poor workmanship and use of poorly made concrete and substandard steel bars.

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN