BAPE fails Government on infrastructure, building code changes

While declaring that major strides have been made over the past few years to propose possible changes to the National Building Code, the Barbados Association of Professional Engineers (BAPE) has given a failing grade to Government for much of the island’s infrastructure.

In a statement released on Thursday, BAPE’s president Lt Col Trevor Browne stressed that though the nation was currently going through a testing period with COVID-19 and all of its indirect effects, the lack of effort seen in the area of correcting the country’s outdated building code, in particular in the face of increasingly stronger storms being faced by the region over the last decade, is a disturbing one.

He said: “While the country has been understandably distracted by COVID-19, volcanic ash, price hikes and various curfews; the complexities of management in the 21st century requires that we be able to walk and chew gum simultaneously. Even more critically, we must be able to do so after having put meaningful proactive plans in place to identify the path we need to walk and the kind of gum we should choose to chew.

“The fact that Barbados continues without a functional building code in 2021 should be a matter of immense shame to everyone involved – and it certainly is to us in BAPE. A National Building Code establishes minimum standards for building and construction – given the known threats and hazards, and is the globally accepted best-practice for proactive hazard mitigation.”

Lt Col Browne cited Prime Minister Mia Mottley’s response to Hurricane Dorian in which she promised significant changes to the island’s building code in order to be prepared for the next inevitable storm. But he accused parliamentarians of failing to take up the issue.

The BAPE leader said: “After her visit to the Bahamas following Dorian, our PM promised solemnly that ‘another year would not pass’ without this embarrassing omission being addressed. Yet despite some outstanding work led by the PM herself and by the Town Planning Association to develop a new Planning and Development Act that would have addressed the issue, we remain in 2021 exactly where we have been for the last many decades.

“It appears that the Act has stalled in the parliamentary process of proclamation. This is really not good enough. And it certainly is not reflective of management by proactive planning and coordinated actions.”

With several communities experiencing significant flooding over the years after minimal rainfall, as well as outages from utilities being seen after smaller storms or tropical waves, Lt Col Browne said effective engineering management is needed at the earliest possible time to escape truly catastrophic disasters.

“Our bigger concern is the apparent lack of any serious interest in bringing a modern level of professionalism to the national challenge of managing our fragile infrastructure with limited resources,” he said. “The era of management by trial-and-error ended decades ago, and even though the economic cost of continuing with that outdated methodology has been staggering and blatant, it appears that this continues to be the genesis of our plans going forward.

“We at BAPE are not in the funeral business. We are not particularly useful after the disaster has occurred. Effective engineering requires that the professionalism and expertise which we bring to the table be applied proactively, economically and scientifically.” (SB)