The Rwandan market was found to be flooded with construction materials
such as commonly used cladding and finishing whose fire ratings were not
indicated. PHOTO | CYRIL NDEGEYA | NATION
How safe are buildings in Rwanda? What standards should this
safety be pegged on? Those are two questions with a baffling answer: No
one really knows!
How? The country has neither gazetted
standards for fire safety nor the capacity to test for the fire ratings
of materials used in the construction industry.
A
recent assessment by the Ministry of Infrastructure (MININFRA) found
that construction materials on a number of buildings had neither labels
nor specifications indicating their fire-rating.
The
possible exceptions may be the newer, high value developments in Kigali
where the involvement of international consultants, imposes
international best practices on both the developer and the contractor.
According
to an urban engineer at the City of Kigali Alphonse Nkurunziza, the
country is yet to develop fire rating standards and a testing
laboratory, hence the market has no certification systems for building
materials.
“Even as we issue construction permits, we
have no basis or capacity to know which material specifications conform
to acceptable fire resistance standards,” Nkurunziza told Rwanda Today.
“Rwanda Standards Bureau should address this loophole and ensure the requisite capacity in terms of equipment and skills to test those materials conduct inspections are in place,” he added.
“Rwanda Standards Bureau should address this loophole and ensure the requisite capacity in terms of equipment and skills to test those materials conduct inspections are in place,” he added.
Sources
familiar with the results of MININFRA’s assessment say the market was
found to be flooded with construction materials such as commonly used
cladding and finishing whose fire ratings were not indicated.
City
of Kigali One Stop Centre Director Fred Mugisha said the situation
complicates not only the control of conformity to fire safety
regulations in issuance of occupation permits but also advising
investors on required materials’ specifications.
“That
is why when we issue an occupation permit we only check if there are
firefighting equipment in the building, because we have no basis to
gauge if the used materials are resistant to fire. The specification of
those materials are not listed anywhere,” he said.
The
concerns arose ahead of a soon-to-be-launched nationwide inspection by
MINIFRA to establish the fire safety status of buildings across the
country.
Infrastructure Minister James Musoni recently
met with One Stop Centre managers; professional engineering
associations and contractors to chart ways of ensuring that materials
that do not deter fires are not used in construction
Musoni said this would require the development of fire safety standards as well as setting up of a national testing laboratory.
Rwanda
Standards Board officials said in select cases, they outsource fire
rating tests on construction materials from professional labs in the
region.
Samuel Mporanzi, the head of Engineering and
Urban Planning at RSB however says the body would soon determine the
standards and the kind of equipment needed for the materials laboratory.
Rwanda recorded more than 330 fire incidents over the
past six years in which prisons, pubs, schools, hotels and commercial
buildings were gutted.
Most incidents were blamed on poor electrical installations and inadequate firefighting equipment among other factors.
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