Built Environment Experts Sound The Alarm

Built Environment Experts Sound The Alarm

Posted by Sylvester on Monday, September 30, 2013 0

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As the country marks its 53rd independence anniversary, professionals take a cursory look at activities in the built environment in the last one year and conclude that much still needs to be done, Maureen Azuh writes.

Stakeholders in the built environment have said that the industry has not moved forward in the last one year, despite several efforts at improvement.

Some of those who spoke with Punch correspondent said there had been efforts at tackling some of the issues that confront the industry, including housing deficit, menace of building collapse and flooding, among others, but only marginal success had been recorded.

Available statistics indicate that the country currently has a housing deficit of about 17 million units, with the tendency of the figure rising further.

In the past one year, stakeholders have focused on ways of making houses available and affordable yet, housing has remained out of the reach of ordinary Nigerians.

While some blamed the problem on insensitivity on the part of the Federal Government, others have said that the amendment of the Land Use Act will be a way out.

A former President, Nigerian Institute of Town Planners, Alhaji Waheed Kadiri, said despite the fact that stakeholders had limited their discourse to housing at the detriment of other infrastructure; there had been no progress, especially in the area of housing for the masses.

He said, “Now, if you move to where we usually focus on – housing – you can see that nothing much has been done; the rich are building for themselves houses that are out of the reach of the common man.