With 140 seismic events reported by the University of West Indies Seismic Research Centre for this year, chairman of the T&T Building Code Committee Shyankaran Lalla wants an urgent meeting with Housing Minister Marlene Mc Donald to discuss implementation of a National Building Code.
Lalla, who is expected to fly to Los Angeles, United States, to do a presentation for the international global forum of the International Code Council (ICC) on September 27, said T&T is due for a massive earthquake.
“Today, hundreds of Housing Development Corporation (HDC) houses do not meet building code requirements and this is a disaster waiting to happen. The fast-tracking of the construction of HDC houses for political expediency is a waste of taxpayers’ money and should not be allowed to happen again,” Lalla said in an interview yesterday.
He said that any undertaking of a construction programme without the proper quality control systems in place was doomed to fail.
Noting that all HDC projects must meet minimum building code requirements, Lalla said: “We have witnessed the loss of lives due to the absence of fire escapes in Trou Macaque (apartments). We have become complacent with regards to disaster risk reduction and if we do not address disaster risk reduction with a sense of urgency we will suffer the consequences.”
“Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley is a seismologist and served at UWI Seismic so we are confident that he will heed the warnings of UWI Seismic Unit and ensure that building codes are developed with a sense of urgency as well as meet with stakeholders to hold discussions on disaster risk reduction.”
Lalla said T&T cannot afford to operate like an Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) when every time a disaster occurs, Government runs to provide beds and tarpaulin.
“We must focus on the reduction of risks associated with disasters by designing resilient structures with sustainable development in mind,” Lalla said.
He noted that former housing minister Dr Roodal Moonilal signed an agreement with the ICC for the use of licensed materials and adoption of the International Building Codes following recommendations made by the Cabinet appointed National Building Code Committee.
A budget of $12 million was approved by Cabinet in December 2013 but no funding was ever provided to the committee to deliver on its mandate. Members of the committee were never paid their stipend, Lalla said.
“This did not stop members of the committee from working since they used their own resources to complete 75 per cent of the work thus far,” Lalla said.
He said he hoped that the new Government will recognise the importance of the development of a National Building Code based on the recent increase of seismic activity.
Calls to the cellphones of Rowley and Mc Donald went unanswered yesterday.