78% of buildings in cities fail to meet standards

Only 22.7 percent of buildings in the 11 cities comply with the Building Control Act, a survey has revealed.

The National Building Review Board (NBRB), which carried out the survey from June to July, showed that 88 per cent of the buildings do not comply with the Act, putting lives of users at risk.

“The study was done on complete buildings and active sites under construction targeting 6,200 buildings. Only 5,642 were inspected, putting the finding at 91 percent, 3,333 were active sites, while 2,606 were complete buildings,”  the survey states.

It focused on approved building plans, occupation permits, professional engagement, and drainage system, among others.

“The  overall compliance level of the active construction sites was  at 19.5 percent, acquisition of building permit at 6 percent, supervision of the building by professionals 6 percent,” the report shows.

While releasing the findings in Kampala yesterday, Ms Flavia Bwire, the NBRB executive secretary, said the survey aimed at ensuring a better understanding of the compliance of the ongoing construction sites and complete buildings.

“The main challenge during the exercise included loss of time due to Covid -19 pandemic, especially the mobility challenges and resistance by some respondents to provide the required information,” she said

The  findings  show that Hoima was the best in both  complete and active sites with 33.7 percent and 26.9 percent, respectively followed by Mbarara with 29 percent  Masaka (25 percent).

The worst include Lira with 9.7 percent followed by Arua (13.9 percent).

Mr Timothy Mubbala, the NBRB manager of compliance, said buildings violating standards will be presented to relevant committees for action.