 have been advised to brace up to the new level of jobs instead of following old trends as global engineering focus on climate changes and impact on the profession.){kind=link}
..Our National committees have proffered various solutions National challenges – NSE
The Nigerian Society of Engineers, (NSE) have been advised to brace up to the new level of jobs instead of following old trends as global engineering focus on climate changes and impact on the profession.
This was contained in the speech by Engr. Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu to the Society Wednesday during a courtesy call of delegation of Nigerian Society of Engineers led by the NSE President Engr Tasiu Saad Gidari Wudil, as part of its activities for this years ‘Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu lecture series’ slated for Owerri on Thursday.
Iwuanyanwu in his speech urged the engineers to brace up to the new levels of the job instead of still following old trends. Saying : “What concerns me now more than anything is this climatic change. It’s gradually changing the whole picture of the world. You can see today many buildings are collapsing, many highways affected.
“Mr President, I think you have to call most of your colleagues, you might have done it already, and if you want me to make an input, I would be willing.” he said
“I think we need to reappraise the design post ,let us look at the design post we have for structures ,let’s see all the type of test we do for soil ,things are changing,underground waters are becoming too bad and it’s going to make many buildings to fail.
Continuing, Nwanyawu who also hold degrees in Engineering said that “Problem with Nigeria, we use the same design structure; the type we use in Owerri is the same we use in Yenegoa where the water level has problem. I think the engineers should look at it. We cannot continue to follow all the things that was brought to us by Britain.
“Things are changing in our environment now. I believe that we should look at the structures, especially foundations. It’s going to lead to failure of not only houses and highways but alos bridges. We have to be very careful.
“The only thing that is saving us in bridges is that the factor set in bridges is so high, they’re on pile foundation. We should change the design code so that we now take into account the new type of underground water that will emanate from climatic change.” Iwuanyanwu said.
He also added that in some places, the wind is getting stronger. The wind velocity of such location must be taken into account during construction activities. He urged the Nigeria Society of Engineers must mirror these and monitor situations.
He expressed dissatisfaction with the rate at which rain washed away some roads saying that some builders are ignoring laid out Standards. . In his words, “I have also been worried about the failure of roads. once the rains come,the roads are washed away,you must set up a committee to proffer solution to this. We have design standards for all kinds of roads but people now come to do all sorts of design,this why we have failure of roads,there is need for quality control “. He said.
The President of the President of the Nigerian Society of Engineers, NSE, Tasiu Gidari-Wudil, while reacting to request made by Iwuanyanwu on the improvement of the profession especially as regards falling standards, and ways of considering the climatic changes disclosed that the NSE has established various national committees comprising experts across the various Divisions within NSE whose recommendations addressed most of the challenges.
He said “Sir ,your concern on the climate, it was well pronounced this year ,we’ve experienced a lot,we’ve experienced flooding and as you know,the Nigerian Society of Engineers have divisions,the civil,division, water division and the environment division.
“This three divisions were tasked ,we gave them assignment to come up with a position paper ,the position paper is ready,we have done a lot ,it’s under review by some past presidents to make inputs before we go to press ,before we send it to the government and do a press conference.
“We have solutions,from past committees that were set up ,members have been involved in government committees and the feelers we’re getting from such committee is that all there recommendations are never implemented.
“So we are going to concentrate on the implementations of those recommendations and virtually all the committees are talking about the same thing because it’s a professional thing,they all have the same methods they have used and they did a very good work and I assure you we’re going to present them to Nigeria government and populace.” The NSE President assured.
He also added “it’s not only the government that have the problems of flooding,most floodings are caused by human activities and we have identified these human activities and pass solution for that,so we’re working on that.
Speaking about the standards, he said “Standards lies with the professionals ,we have given that assignment to all the divisions ,today we have 26 divisions and we have tasked each division to come up with one code of practice that can take local situations .
“If you’re talking about the BSC110,it was done by the British,can’t we bring it here ,like the peculiar level you talked about,such as the ground water ,we can do our own ‘8110’ ,can’t we do ‘BS7671’ which we have done surprisingly people don’t know about them .
Chief Iwuanyawu who is also a fellow of Nigerian Society of Engineers, NSE has preciously been know to call attention of the Society and to the effect of climate change earlier in the year he pledged his life commitment pledged to use the remaining part of lifetime to support noble global cause a meeting of the Global Coalition for Sustainable Environment on Climate Change Mitigation, where he emerged as the Chairman Board of Trustees, BoT. The objectives is “To Assemble Engineers, Scientists and other professionals with the commitment and passion for creating awareness on the diverse ills on the environment for the benefit of present and future generations.