While new local and international construction projects are mushrooming in Colombo, the city is already reaching a stage where most of its decades-old buildings need immediate redevelopment. The Daily Mirror learned that neither the Municipal authorities nor the Urban Development Authority (UDA) officials have a proper monitoring and maintaining procedure with regard to the old buildings. The recent unfortunate incident reported in Grandpass, where seven people, including four women, died after a warehouse, storing spices, collapsed on them. All those affected by this collapsed building were poor working staff. Two injured workers are still fighting for their lives in the National Hospital. However, the Daily Mirror, found out that apart from the warehouse building being decades old, there was another outside reason which caused the sudden collapse, killing the workers who got trapped within.

The incident

The building belonging to Adam Exports, used for the packaging of spices, is located at Babapulle Mawatha, Grandpass. It collapsed around 3.00 pm on February 14 (Wednesday), killing seven workers and injuring another two. Rescue teams with the support of Fire Brigade, Army and Air Force personnel carried out operations and discovered three dead bodies. Six severely injured people were admitted to hospital. Later, four of them were pronounced dead. Among the dead are four females and three males. Another male and a female are currently being treated at the hospital. Hospital sources told the Daily Mirror that the condition of the injured is serious.   
Police sources told the Daily Mirror that the building is around 165 years old and some demolition work had been going on in the building next to it. According to sources from the rescue team, a part of the adjourning building had fallen onto the warehouse building, triggering the sudden collapse.   

Warehouse security guard has narrow escape

“Our stores manager first heard the noise of roofing sheets trembling. He called me and the owner of the warehouse, where spices are stored. When we took the first few steps into the warehouse, we witnessed the roof and walls having collapsed and the entire warehouse was covered with dust. I don’t know why it was caused. I just ran outside the warehouse and managed to save my life. After sometime, I along with some other workers went inside in search of the boss and the supervisor. The latter was found dead. Our boss later succumbed to his injuries. Around nine workers were inside the warehouse at the time of the collapse. The warehouse and the factory are used for packing of all Sri Lankan spices and exporting them. The majority of the workers are females,” the security guard of the warehouse who escaped the disaster said.   

165-years-old warehouse building badly needed a repair

An individual named Mahendran, who claimed to have worked in the warehouse some years ago, told the Daily Mirror that the warehouse building was so old that it badly needed a repair. He also said that the owners didn’t bother to re-develop the building and all what they did was do patch-ups whenever some parts of the wall fell off.   
The OIC Colombo North Police when contacted said that it wasn’t clear as yet what had caused the collapse. “We will only know the cause in a day or two following inquiries,” the OIC told the Daily Mirror.
However, a source close to the police confirmed that although it was not officially announced, some on-going work at the building that included demolishing activities caused the collapse, trapping the workers within.

Unsafe buildings

Senior architect and urban designer Lalitharaja Muthukumarana, speaking to the Daily Mirror said that within the Colombo Municipality, there are many ‘dilapidated and dangerous to inhabit’ buildings that have gone unnoticed by the authorities. Muthukumarana said that the authorities should start demolishing or repairing the old buildings in order to protect other properties and residents who live close by.   
“The redevelopment projects should specifically include all the buildings in Colombo which are old and may collapse at any given time,” he said.   
He added that following inspection, a technical report on the condition of each building should be submitted to the relevant authorities of the buildings to take suitable action.   
“The buildings should be taken down completely or revamped entirely to protect the lives of the inhabitants,” he affirmed.   
Many reasons including environmental impacts, using sub-standard materials, using wrong constructing technology and poor maintenance can cause buildings to collapse, he pointed out.   
He stressed that the authorities should consult experts in order to put the development plans into practice.   

"Due to negligence of the developers, seven people have lost their lives"

"Within Colombo, there are many ‘dilapidated and dangerous to inhabit’ buildings that have gone unnoticed"

"Awareness programmes should be carried out to inform the public regarding the seriousness of the issue"

Redevelopment of buildings for commercial purpose

The former Governments carried out redevelopment projects aimed at turning selected historical buildings into the tourist attractions and commercially valued locations. Among them, Arcade - Independence Square is one of the most important refurbishment and development projects undertaken by the Ministry of Defence and the UDA. It used to be the old Auditor General’s Building formerly.   
The UDA stated that a special team of architects were dispatched to Paris, France to gain international exposure to heritage buildings and the beautification of a well planned city.   
Colombo Racecourse Sports Complex is also one of such redeveloped projects. In 2011, the renovation of the Grandstand and the Colombo Turf Club building were done and they were turned into an international Rugby Stadium. Dutch Hospital – Colombo situated opposite the World Trade Centre, is believed to have been built around 1681, according to Christopher Schweitzer, a German national serving in Sri Lanka. The building too went through serious redevelopment process.   

Calls to increase public awareness

All the above mentioned re-developed buildings provide an income to the Government. Yet, there are many unnoticed really old buildings where the general public inhabit or engage in some sort of businesses. Those buildings, with patchy walls and roofs vulnerable to collapse, have become a sorry sight in some parts of Colombo such as Colombo Fort, Pettah and Grandpass.   
Former Chairman of the UDA and renowned Professor in Architecture at Moratuwa University Prof. Nimal de Silva opined that awareness programmes should be carried out to inform the public regarding the seriousness of the issue. He stated that residents and owners of such old buildings have no idea about the status of the buildings they are living in and whether they should undergo relevant re-development process.   
“It’s not an easy task to identify all the old buildings in the city and develop them. It needs a broad and effective plan. Owners of private buildings are not willing to change the structure of their old buildings. Further, it is impossible to visit every single household or business entity and inspect the status of the every single building. Owners of those buildings don’t like that too,” Prof. de Silva said.   
He said what needs to be done is raise people’s awareness and persuade them to seek technical support and guidance if they need to redevelop their properties.   
He also stressed that knowledge of professional architects should be utilized for the up-coming projects in order to provide a better solution to the issue.     

“Owners of the building should be held responsible”  - Mahanamahewa

A case should be filed against the owner of the building, that was being demolished, under civil and criminal charges, Former Chairman of the Human Rights Commission Prathiba Mahanamahewa told the Daily Mirror. Mahanamahewa pointed out that the owner, the engineers and all stakeholders attached to the said building should be held responsible for the loss of lives.
He also called for amendments to the construction law applied in the country in order to make it easy for law enforcement agencies to take action during these types of incidents.

NBRO clears doubts about the cause

Meanwhile, a team from the National Building Research Organisation, Sri Lanka (NBRO) visited the site on February 15 (yesterday) morning. The visit was made following a request made by the police to compile a preliminary report regarding the collapse of the building to find out the cause. The report was expected to be handed over to the police last evening.   
Project Management Director of the NBRO Kumuduni Jayawardane headed the visit. She is responsible in making the report. When the Daily Mirror inquired from Jayawardane to explain the cause of the collapse, she said, “A wall of the building that was being demolished had fallen on the roof of the warehouse, causing its collapse and killing workers who got trapped inside. Our team observed that the demolishing activities that were being carried out at the building next to the warehouse did not comply with specified guidelines. Necessary technical methodology and machinery were not used by the developers. They should have informed the people in next building about these activities in advance,” she said.   

"Our team observed that the demolishing activities that were being carried out at the building next to the warehouse did not comply with specified guidelines"

According to her, the building that was being demolished was a three-storey building. The said building is very much attached to the warehouse and any constructional activity could make an impact on the warehouse, she stated.   
Jayawardane noted that there is a set of guidelines and protective methods to be followed when demolishing a building, especially a three-storey building like this.   
“Due to negligence of the developers, seven people have lost their lives. Police will take necessary legal action according to the Penal Code. The legal action taken by the Police will be based on the NBRO report that we are currently working on. We hope to submit it this evening,” she said.  

Pics by Waruna Wanniarchchi