Survival of the fittest: Assessing incidents of building collapse and reduction practices in Lagos, Nigeria

Abstract

The persistent increase in the occurrence of building collapse with attendant loss of lives in recent years has become a source of national concern in Nigeria. Hence, there is a need to strategically address gaps in proactive and reactive measures directed at preventing the occurrence of building collapse. This study explored how built environment professionals in government agencies, public and private institutions conceive the causes of building collapse, and the disaster risk reduction measures put in place by the state government to prevent and respond to the incidence of building collapse in Lagos state. The purposive snowball sampling technique was adopted to select 42 respondents for in-depth interviews. The findings revealed that building collapse is a common phenomenon in the study area and is primarily caused by institutional failure and human factors. The research further established that most collapsed buildings were old residential buildings. It was also discovered that the disaster risk reduction strategies put in place to curb the occurrence of building collapse were not holistic and effective. The study recommended continuous sensitization of building developers and provision of modern facilities such as drones and global positioning systems by the government for effective monitoring of building development in the state.

Social sustainability under threat: a case of two collapsed buildings in Lagos, Nigeria

“…It was achieved via interviews with experts and selected two case studies. It is in line with Okunola (2021) that adopted in-depth interviews to investigate building collapse in Lagos, Nigeria. For the study, some of the participants were workers in the adopted two collapsed building projects and the cases happened within an hour.…”

Land Subsidence Hazard and Building Collapse Risk in the Coastal City of Lagos, West Africa

“…Other factors for consideration include the soil type and foundation materials (Skempton & Macdonald, 1956 ; Zhang & Ng, 2007 ), type of building construction material, the age, and maintenance state of the buildings (Cigna & Tapete, 2021a ; Ozer & Geurts, 2021 ). Thus, the use of substandard building materials and poor maintenance culture of buildings prevalent in Lagos (Ayeni & Adedeji, 2015 ; Ede, 2010 ; Odeyemi et al., 2019 ; Okagbue et al., 2018 ; Okunola, 2021 ) are likely to unfavorably tilt the scales of a building from a low‐ to high‐risk zone.…”

“…Lagos, Nigeria, the third most populous coastal city in the world and the second most populated city in Africa (Figures 1a and 1b ), with an estimated population of ∼15 million, has recorded an unabating incidence of building collapse over the past 50 years. The existing literature reports approximately 300 collapsed buildings between 1978 and 2022 in Lagos (Ebehikhalu & Dawam, 2014 ; Okunola, 2021 ), with more than 400 deaths, 6,000 displaced households, and an estimated loss of property worth about US$ 3.2 trillion (Okunola, 2021 , 2022 ). Four such major incidences of collapsed buildings in Lagos have resulted in the loss of 191 lives (Figure 1c ).…”

“…Despite the significant socioeconomic and human impacts of these occurrences, incidences of building collapse in Nigeria are hugely underreported and do not receive major scholarly and media attention (Windapo & Rotimi, 2012 ). For example, a global report on building collapse over the last 50 years, reported only 12 collapsed buildings in Nigeria (Keim, 2021 ), which is 20 times less than the factual number of collapsed buildings (Akinyemi et al., 2016 ; Awoyera et al., 2021 ; Ebehikhalu & Dawam, 2014 ; Okunola, 2021 ; Oloke et al., 2017 ; Windapo & Rotimi, 2012 ).…”

“…In Nigeria, these occurrences have been a source of concern to stakeholders, leading to increased diffusion of engineering knowledge to examine the causes of building failure (Ebehikhalu & Dawam, 2014 ). The cause has majorly been attributed to carelessness, poor workmanship, design flaws, and the use of substandard construction materials (Adetunji et al., 2018 ; Ebehikhalu & Dawam, 2014 ; Okunola, 2021 ). However, a statistical comparison of three major cities with the highest rate of building collapse in Nigeria shows that incidences of building collapse in Lagos are 700%–1,900% (8–20 times) greater than in the other two cities (Akinyemi et al., 2016 ; Ede, 2010 ).…”