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Impact Of Maintenance Of Buildings And Infrastructural Facilities To The National Economy
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There are so many problems associated with the maintenance of buildings
and infrastructural facilities on the economy. One of the serious
problems if finance; government financing as regards to maintenance of
buildings (both public and private) is minimal. The grant towards
maintenance of infrastructural facilities is on its lowest ebb. Most
buildings and infrastructures have been neglected by subsequent tenures
of government while the private sectors; the individual property owners
have little or nothing to contribute towards effective maintenance of
their buildings, so long as the buildings affords the owner annual
income he could not care less for the maintenance and so long the
interior of the building is conducive for the occupants they could not
care for outward appearance or other necessary maintenance activity.
Another problem to effective maintenance of the built environment in
Nigeria is corruption. Certain governments which have the welfare of the
populace at heart will foster a well finance programme to cater for the
maintenance of certain facilities such as road networks bore hole
systems, bridge construction, elevation of the power grid for
alleviation of suffering and eventual welfare of the populace but
certain corrupted officials will channel these funds for personal
aggrandizement. Another serious impediment to maintenance in Nigeria is
the state of the economy, according to the united research on
profitability index as regards to income per capita of nations of the
world; Nigeria is rated as fifth poorest country (UN 2010), which
implies that the average Nigerian lives below one dollar per day. As a
result of this economic hardship residents and citizens has little or
nothing to contribute in terms of effective maintenance of their abode
thus leading to neglected effects visualized in our cities and
metropolis.
Also certain buildings in Nigerian cities were
constructed during the pre-colonial era therefore most of these
buildings are aged due to wear and tear, weathering and climatic factors
over the years thus resulting in dilapidated nature which might not
respond positively to modern day maintenance day techniques, the reason
for this assertion being 51% repair – replacement strategy, such
buildings, the cost of their repairs might equal over 50% cost of new
construction.
Buildings and infrastructural decay also stems from
poor workmanship and poor supervision (Amobi 2003), most of these
defects arises from the fact that the skill
employed during the
production of these buildings are defective, the supervisory most at
times is minimal or left in the hands of unskilled foremen thus creating
a chasm which will be filled by unprofessional ethics thus resulting in
failure in the life of the structure which will eventually be
translated to the overall life span of the building/structure.
This
study aims to identify the shortcomings which militate against the
effective maintenance of buildings and infrastructures. Therefore there
is need for effective maintenance of all these buildings and
infrastructures and also identify the external factors militating
against effective maintenance of building and infrastructural facilities
to perform its functional requirement.
1.3 Aim and Objectives of the study
The
aim of this research work is to discover how maintenance of buildings
and infrastructures can be effected, effectively to help increase the
workers output thus increasing labour efficiency and increasing the
income of the nation leading to increased income per capita of the
populace.
The objectives of this research work are as follows:
(a)
Have a proper look at the level of maintenance attention that buildings
and infrastructures within Nigeria receive.
(b) Now the current building and infrastructural maintenance practice with a view to improve on them.
(c)
To pin-point the various difficulties and problems that hamper the
efficient execution of an effective maintenance management on buildings
and infrastructure in Nigeria.
(d) To examine the causes that lead to the deterioration and dilapidations of buildings and infrastructures.
(e) To proffer solutions to the menace of lack of maintenance of buildings and infrastructures within Nigeria.
In
emphasis, this project will show the need for proper maintenance
schemes for buildings and infrastructures, that will help reduce
maintenance cost, minimize loss of use, improve safety conditions,
improve aesthetic values and improve appearance of buildings thereby
reduces the cases of collapse of structures and the inherent dangers to
life and investment.
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