By Mashe Umaru Gwamna
The Fomer President of the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN),Engr. Ali Rabiu,said the inclusion of drainage systems in road construction is function of government’s specification to contractors.
Engr. Rabiu made the disclosure in Abuja during an interview.
He said contractors are not be blamed for constructing roads without building drainage systems.
He noted that “No contractor would deliver what the client had not specified or paid for”.
He said “If you commission a contractor to construct a road for you, and give him the design of the road and the price of the contract are negotiated in accordance with the design, the contractor constructed the road you have given him or her to do.
“If the design includes drainage of course he would have no option than to put drainage, and if it doesn’t include drainage because you don’t want to spend money, he will give the road you have asked him to construct”, he stated .
He said” So it is important for us as engineers to advise our government; to always include building of drainages while constructing roads, because it is there function to do so”.
“Government is the sole owner of roads, out of over 200,000 km of roads we have in Nigeria none belong to any private individual,” he said.
According to him, roads are shared between the three arms of government; the Federal Government owns about 35,000km, the state governments and the local government own the balance.
The former COREN president emphasized that the owners of roads is the government.
“Government should be ready to take the advice of the professional on the need to build drainage to ensure we have more durable roads.
“Most importantly it has to utilise the services of professionals. If you want to build a road, then you have to go through the conception stage, which also includes the planning, the design and then actualise it by construction.
Similarly, A civil engineer, Marshal Anuforo, said there are some other factors that also accounted for the lack of drainage on constructed roads.
He said most contracts were sourced by bidders then outsourced to contractors, and according to him, this could involve a long chain of people.
“When the chain becomes so long, from one hand of one contractor to the other and each chain wants to have their own profit”.
“The fund that would remain for the job is reduced and the engineer of course will not use his money to carry out the job.
“So, I think that those that give out contracts should ensure that they send officials to monitor and supervise the work”.
