Roofings Group Limited, Excel Construction Company and Kira Municipality are among the winners of the National Building Control Awards (NBCA) held at Speke Resort Munyonyo.
The second edition of the awards organised by the National Building Review Board (NBRB) aimed at recognising organisations and individuals for their efforts towards ensuring a sustainable built environment.
Kira Municipality scooped both the Building Committee and Building Control Officer Award, Excel Construction Limited received the Building Contractors Award, Roofings Group Limited, the Building Materials Manufacturers while Children Surgical Hospital Entebbe walked away with the Building Award.
Presiding over the award’s ceremony, the Minister of Works and Transport Gen. Edward Katumba Wamala rallied stakeholders in the built environment to support government efforts towards restoring the destroyed wetlands, promoting the adoption of low-carbon building materials, re-use of new and existing materials and improving material efficiency.
“The massive growth of the building sector is now posing a challenge especially towards our environment. Gazetted water catchment areas, forest reserves, open spaces have been encroached on. Greenhouse emissions and high energy consumption are also eminent during our construction process. We must combine efforts to reverse this trend”. The Minister noted.
The Executive Secretary of NBRB Eng. Flavia Bwire encouraged the public to opt for renewable, recycled, and locally sourced materials which can drastically reduce the carbon footprint.
“Imagine buildings constructed from bamboo, reclaimed wood, or recycled steel—materials that tell a story of sustainability and respect for our planet”. Eng. Bwire noted.
A 2019 report of the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction, a United Nations Environment Programme, showed that globally, the building and construction sector contributes the largest share of Carbon dioxide related emissions at 39% and energy use at 36%. In Africa alone, buildings and building related activities account for 32% of carbon dioxide emissions, yet the building stock in the continent is set to double by 2050. This situation is mainly attributed to the increasing demand for construction building materials, to meet the needs of the growing urbanizing population.
The winners were determined following public participation through an online nomination tool, in an exercise that lasted two months.
Nominations from Kampala, Kamuli, Tororo, Nebbi, Mbarara, Kabale, Kira, Jinja, Soroti, Gulu among others were received. In order to ensure integrity and impartiality in the selection of award winners, a 7-member Technical Panel of Experts (judges) nominated by various professional and regulatory bodies that included Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS), Internal Auditors Association of Uganda, Uganda National Association of Building and Civil Engineering Contractors (UNABCEC) constituted the verification and selection committee.
The Technical Panel of Experts traversed the entire country to validate the information that was received from the online nominations and assessed it in order to select the winners.
The ceremony was attended by the State Minister for Public Service Mary Mugasa, Chairperson Equal Opportunities Commission Hon Aisha Nalule, Commissioner Transport Regulation and Safety Winstone Katushabe, former NBRB members, officials from Buganda Kingdom among others.