Dilapidated Houses & Building Collapses In Bahrain Part I

Introduction

The Local newspapers in the Kingdom of Bahrain have recently published some news about arresting a building owner in the capital, Manama, where the building that he is owned has been completely collapsed and resulted in the deaths of four ex-pats and a further 22 have been injured. He has been questioned, charged with a crime, and kept in custody in order to appear at criminal court on a specified date once the investigation is completed. A similar scenario had previously occurred in Salmanyia & Naim, the main districts with the highest expats density in Manama where the rent and property prices are amongst the highest in Bahrain, and many of them (Expats) are forced to live in dilapidated and old properties as labor camps. Chairman of the Capital Board of Trustees has announced that “a minimum of 100 dilapidated or ramshackle buildings in Manama Capital Governorate have already been highly recommended for immediate demolition". Subsequently, the Manama municipality has obtained189 an executive ruling regarding the immediate demolition of the housing of foreign workers as part of its keenness to implement the regulatory requirements for health safety and the environment.

Building collapse/failure could possibly arise and happen without any warning. Therefore, it is strongly recommended to assess the building structure by a competent person or an approved engineering office within the earliest opportunity to avoid such unwanted events. Moreover, such assessment needs to be continuously taken during the entire event of building collapse for the emergency rescue team at a different stage to take into account the reliability and strength of the surrounding building structures and atmosphere conditions before, throughout, and immediately after an emergency Operation, renovation, demolition, and rebuilding works.

The Kingdom of Bahrain

Typically, the Kingdom of Bahrain is the smallest country of GCC states; an archipelago consists of 33 islands. Therefore, the number of artificially reclaimed islands has been rising steadily for the last two decades in order to overcome physical constraints such as the well-known shortage of land making the Kingdom of Bahrain one of the densest states on the globe having a population density in excess of 2,100 individuals for each square kilometer. This is definitely a large number in comparison to the other GCC states where KSA & Oman (16), Kuwait (240, Qatar (251)), and UAE (140). The Kingdom of Bahrain is in addition among the least developed states within GCC along with comparatively slowly speeding of growth and development and minimal quantity of oil and gas stock. During the COVID-19, Bahrain like other worldwide countries suffer from increased challenges such as lowering of business volume, difficulties in financing as an outcome of a delay in receivables, lack of cash flow. However, the Kingdom of Bahrain expects enough financial support such as cash flow from GCC via a recovery plan of the economic stimulus support fund.

Building Collapses in Bahrain

Within the last four decades, the building construction sector in the Kingdom of Bahrain has seen significant growth. A high number of mega-building construction projects had been successfully completed without a lost-time accident (LTA). In those times, there has also been a significant development in construction technology, innovation, and economic growth. Such development results in a major improvement in the methods of construction, unique and complicated designs, high-reliability materials and equipment, specific procedures, and new regulations and standards. However, the characteristics and complications of such improvement in today's building styles created different traces of risks and threats within today's building development approaches rather than completely getting rid of or at least greatly minimizing such threats. Furthermore, there is a high number of old buildings in different areas in the Kingdom of Bahrain especially in Manama which may be more than 50 years of age. In addition to their landlord designs, structure and construction materials do not match today's safety requirements. Accordingly, since the last decade until now, the Kingdom of Bahrain has witnessed several building collapse events especially in Manama where a high number population of 664,000 are living there and fire rescue service machines find it difficult to find their way to such buildings in case of emergency assistance due to narrow and limited lanes. In general, the Kingdom of Bahrain has responded to a real national issue by focusing on the elimination of building collapses. This usually concentrates on various housing programs made for the families and community which has a long wider impact on the sustainability programs and demonstrates a good indication of abating of such unwanted events.

The old model of such buildings must be gone for a redesigned and rehabilitation plan to protect people, save Bahrain heritage and create a better tomorrow. Even though, there are no data obtainable on building collapse in the Kingdom of Bahrain as the only one obtainable is usually from the local news agencies, the current situation and regularity of building collapse events have become a threatening, risky, and significant issue that must be permanently eliminated. Such national issue should become continually one of the key focuses for enforcement bodies across in. Otherwise, such situation may lead to another collapse of such buildings and be catastrophic. Additionally, such unwanted events have also significant impacts mainly on the Kingdom's economic rate, foreign Investment Business Opportunities and Tourism Industry Growth and Opportunities which are considered as one of the main sectors in the kingdom which need always to be very well situated to keep an effective business and economic growth.

Risk Elimination VS Heritage Protection

As a high number of the buildings and houses collapses in the Kingdom of Bahrain are over 50 years old, therefore, they should be considered as historic as they are related to activities, developments and even events which were valuable during the past as well as considering the life-style of folks, landscape and architectural history, engineering accomplishments. Therefore, controversy still exists in many countries of the world between some safety experts who support the immediate demolition of the old buildings to permanently remove the danger, maintain a safe community as the main commitment of their mission. They do not fully agree with the other parties such as the National Heritage Protection who suggest avoiding the demolition as a solution of such buildings as they symbolize the civilization of the country. They claim that such houses/buildings can be preserved through reconstruction, rehabilitation, preservation, or restoration. However, the safety experts claim that such houses/buildings would not turn out to be a beneficial economic investment as such solutions would take more time, be more difficult, costly, require frequent maintenance and costly coverable under a specialized insurance firm. Accordingly, the risk would exist and the likelihood of unwanted events would be high. They add that the citizens that are in such houses/buildings are unable from doing any change.

Restoring the historic houses/buildings produce a sense of heritage and culture as they link us to history. Therefore, the citizens realize that traditional or old-fashioned styles of buildings and houses are more environmentally friendly, sustainable and related to them which have a level of high-quality associated with their lives. They enhance the education sector while it behaves as learning gears/resources for students, builders, architects, and communities. Preserving or safeguarding such houses/buildings increase the current economic rate and boost property values. A study was conducted in the United States of America by an economist about historic houses/buildings. The study found that such houses and buildings enhance the property values with an increase ranging from 4% to over 19% per year (R.Cole, 2018). Retaining also any kind of historical/heritage components as well as pieces in place would increase the economy as the tourism income would support such a vital sector. Just remember that whatever model of restoration is without a doubt environmentally friendly in comparison to the latest build and development, the materials would not be wasted or even forming a desirable for the latest ones. To manage the risk, such buildings/houses can be fully segregated, secured until the required solution is being completed.

What Is a Building Collapse?

Building collapses can often be extremely prevented particularly as long as there is an effective proactive strategy to prevent such unwanted events. Building collapse can be considered as a phenomenon indicated with the adjustment with the structural reliability of a building's aspect factors, leading to its ultimate failure which relies on the materials, the approaches of construction, building use and environmental conditions. Mainly the design such as loss of load holding the total capacity of a structural element as well as structure alone which is certainly malfunction and failure within the structural element to function mainly as designed. Such failure usually makes the building quite unsafe (risky) concerning habitation or maybe progression of several construction activities. This can even ultimately result in partial or even full collapse, loss of lives, and deterioration to property and damage to the environment. Building collapse risk is defined as an unwanted situation that might result in undesirable or adverse effects mainly on building users, clients, investors, and the local community, and therefore, they have a major threat to the project goals. As a result of viewpoint, such risks are seen as threats to being successful.

Causes

During 15 years of working in construction health and safety, I had come across several building collapse incidents. A small number was definitely significant and the others were correct or can be considered as a minor incident. Such unwanted events increase a critical question and boost doubt regarding the health & safety specifications, the capacity of engineering offices and construction firms as well as the local strategy within such vital field. They should preferably convince the public about such unwanted events/issues will not occur again. They must continue coming out with speedy solutions to wipe off the fearfulness from public memories. Citizens seem contentedly worrying about their safety; they are in constant worry, for themselves and for their children. Therefore, factors of building failure/collapse should be clearly identified to propose and apply effective mitigations. The factors tend to be easily trackable to numerous causes: natural, artificial which is mainly related to human errors, ethics and misuse or lack of proper management of building proprietor.

Ethics

According to construction experts, the lack of moral and ethical beliefs system or culture within a country where such system typically directs values, attitudes, and decisions of the stakeholders, as well as their individuals, can lead to many unwanted events such as building collapse. The negative moral practices such as ignorance, negligence, omissions, sabotage and main corruption within countries with limited income and loss regulated are the main causes of building collapse. Therefore, specialists within the building business sector should build their reliability, ethical motive and get the job done based on the standard specifications/procedures set down as a result of the standard manner of building agreements.

Natural Causes

The Kingdom of Bahrain has been recently ranked as the seventh safe place and secure globally and third in GCC in terms of natural disasters (IEHS, 2018). We are so lucky in Bahrain, that unwanted natural disasters such as earthquakes, typhoons, floods, etc. do not take place in Bahrain. However, there is a need for a future plan as long as the changing and inconstancy nature of climate and natural threats are still significantly taking place globally and continue to be one of the complicated confrontations struggling with scientists and others concerned such as planners, insurers and regulators. Therefore, the construction standards/materials which are particularly manufactured to prevent a building collapse/failure during these kinds of disasters need to be developed to match future needs.

Artificial Causes

There are many reasons in terms of artificial which may lead to a partial or even a complete collapse during the construction phase or after the building is occupied.

? During the construction phase, the reasons are quite enough such as improper structural design and foundation, substandard construction materials. Therefore, the current planning, full-time supervision and active and reactive monitoring of building activities should be reviewed and developed in order to make certain that all buildings are built in accordance with related regulations and standards in terms of approved design, specifications, planning and monitoring. An effective enforcement system concentrating on the proactive strategy needs to be implemented by all concerned especially local authorities which will also help eliminate such unwanted events.

? Utilization of substandard construction materials applied such as reinforcement corroded, poor quality of cement, etc. Using soft soil is a danger as it will surely result in a major collapse, un-calibrated instruments can have major impacts on project safety, quality and productivity, and lack of accurate test of materials such as a test of soil, ready-mix, etc. to building construction may lead to a building which can be significantly less strong as compared to the intended one. Such an approach boosts the possibility of the collapse/failure might the building come in contact with further forces. Although there is an official system, several substandard construction materials are still being imported by individuals and small supplier firms. A specific system needs to be effectively established and implemented to avoid such material entering.

? The building did not be built on standard soil and stone or not well-compacted. The current building materials testing laboratories within the kingdom need to be restructured and empowered and more laboratories are required to avoid business interruptions and increase competitive advantages.

? The stakeholders may employ an incompetent construction team or an inadequate skillfulness throughout the construction cycle which may lead to having low quality work, unable to detect non-conformance work as they are unaware of the required technical specifications. The purpose of such an approach is to save cost, therefore, avoid applying incompetent subcontractors via main contractors.

? In terms of an occupied building, there are countless factors such as:

? Overloading: the building might be tenanted by too many people and sitting mainly in sensitive places such on a deck or balcony which are considered as a very common cause for building failure/collapse associated with this sort of building structures and also in the event of The tenancy rate of places is being exceeded without an accurate assessment.

? Insufficient Active & Re-active Maintenance Program will certainly result in things such as never recognizing an issue in advance to avoid unwanted events such as collapse.

? Utilization of substandard chemical materials for example fire protection retardant product/item cured timber roof structure composition created with substandard item ammonium phosphate (NH??PO?) which was supplied at a low cost. Such an item was later found the main reason for building collapse as it is susceptible, likely, or liable to be influenced or harmed by a particular thing like heat.

? Fire: fire decreases all solid construction materials such as steel, aluminum, reduce strength, results in ready-mix to pass through chemical variations which de-escalate the application, triggers masonry brickwork to crack and even fragment. It will eventually devour the burnable materials such as wood/plastic which can lead to partial or complete building collapse. Such a situation relies on to fire prevention/protection and fighting program of such buildings and the arrival of fire service engines. This includes improper storage of flammable materials such as cooking gas which was found the main cause of building collapse in the Salmanyia area in Bahrain in 2018 which resulted in a catastrophic event due to improper use and storage of cooking liquefied petroleum gas.

? Vibrations: A generating severe vibration on suspended flooring surfaces utilizing breaking and removing from main parts of the building such as beams, slabs and supports.

? Flood & erosion: The old foundation might be subject to flood or erosion and could possibly result in a building collapse.

? A terrorist attack (bombing) can lead to building collapse i.e. Federal Office Building in Oklahoma City in 1995 & the World Trade Towers in 2011 both incidents occurred in the United States of America.

? Demolition: Collapse or the collapse of adjacent buildings due to different types of demolition work such as piecemeal, deliberate controlled collapse.

The Frequent Signs of Building Failure/Collapse

All buildings which are on the verge of collapse appearing with certain signs and remain one of the least recognized as most of those signs require a competent person to prove them. Whenever such signs have been seen/ noticed, immediate notification of such building conditions must immediately be done under RIDDOR to prevent any unwanted events and save human lives. Below are a couple of frequent and certain signs cited from different scientific websites.

? Inconsistent cracks within partitions/structure walls along with an increase among such cracks;

? Leaning, bulging or even bowing within structure walls tend to be an outcome of lowering structure wall strength and stability;

? Typically steel seems to be bent or possibly comes with cracks close to columns and beams which look uneven, bend or even the steel contained columns and beams seem to be usually have damaged/broken;

? The frames/casings of windows and doors seem to be remarkably inclined to just a single side and eventually bent;

? The marble/granite/Cesar stone fixed or applied on the windows would seem to be cracked. Tiles will come out of their position and fall down;

? Cracks within the windowpanes/glasses generate hearable cracking noises which may lead to annoyance for a long-term exposure;

? The spaces forming within all doors and their frames may lead to become so hard during opening and locking of the doors;

? The window glasses generate excessively and loudly cracking noise disturbance as well as crumbling down;

? The steel may typically not be apparent and also is quite thin within the beam, column and even the ceiling in case the adhesive plaster remarkably drops down/off; and

? Finally, the water that was previously accustomed to flowing out from the building begins leaking directly into the building basement.

Types of Failure/Building Collapse

The construction experts have divided the building failure/Collapse into two categories, internal and external:

Internal Collapse

It is divided into four categories:

Pancake Failure/Collapse is considered as a failure or an inability within load-bearing partitions/walls or possibly an upper floor that breaks down and horizontally drops or into the below floor. The extra weight triggers such floors along with next floors to a major fail and usually drop into the bottom stage. Such collapse is often known as a progressive failure and maybe wrongly recognized concerning a complete collapse.

Lean-to Failure/collapse can often occur when the supporting partition or wall, beam or column breaks down within a single end. The triangular in shape voids tend to be designed underneath and will also provide safe shelter for tenants/residents.

V Shape Failure/collapse can often be taken place when quite heavy loads at the top result in collapse within a certain stage/point of a floor stage. The extra load leads to triggers the point to break down within the middle area. This kind of triangular in shape voids certainly will behave as risk-free refuges.

Tent Failure/collapse can often occur when structural supports break down close to the external walls/partitions although continue in situ for the inner load-bearing element.

External Failure/collapse

It is divided into four categories:

90° Failure/Collapse such collapse can often occur when a structure wall drops outwards into a range which can certainly be a minimum comparable to its height. As a result, the debris of such collapse will certainly be extended since the structure wall gets into the particular ground.

Curtain Fall Failure/Collapse can be considered just as the curtain cut free or unfastened towards the top, the structure walls collapse lower result in generating a rubble pile close to or around the bottom of said wall.

Inward/Outward Failure/Collapse can often occur when structure walls/partitions break horizontally within the middle area where the half of the top part drops inwards while the half of the lower part drops outwards.

Total Collapse is actually the most significant type of structural failure and can often be occurred if the whole set of floors possessed collapsed down to the ground or simply on the basement stage which leads to the whole set of partitions/walls possessed collapsed over to these floors.

Housing Program In Bahrain

As a small number of nations worldwide can potentially provide a high number of locals with the community housing program, therefore, the kingdom of Bahrain is among the first to have an on-going housing program in the region. Such program has been globally recognized as it is considered a long-term commitment. It was established in 1963 by building thousands of houses and apartments in many towns such as Isa, Hamad, Sh. Zayid, Salman, and Khalifa, Ramli, and Louzi Towns, etc. This program has really maintained a safe and integrated community leading to have a significant decrease in the number of unpermitted buildings, zero of new slums and the risk of house collapsing has also been almost minimized to minimal levels. In order to strengthen this program and achieve its aims and objectives in term of eliminating building collapse, the Ministry of Housing has already turned to the private sector for increasing participation and providing community housing for locals such as Masaya, Dragon, Amwaj, Riffa views, etc. As a result, this program has assisted the local authorities to identify the dilapidated buildings, making a comprehensive assessment of them and adding them in an action plan to do what can be necessarily done such as demolition or renovation.

Slums Elimination Project

The government of the Kingdom of Bahrain has successfully managed through an urban development plan, to eliminate slums since the end of the last century and the Kingdom has become free of slums. Such a plan has assisted to eliminate similar hazards and risks at the building collapse. Such achievement has been achieved in the line of a major expansion in the development of the housing projects which come within the framework of the implementation of the city's master plan project. The people at removed slum areas were quickly removed and settled to the new residential areas where the necessary infrastructure facilities were provided, and most importantly, the strict prevention of slum or random construction in the Kingdom. The government has issued complementary decisions, including the law to stop unlicensed construction and immediately reconcile building violations, immediately apply it, toughen penalties for violating it, and strictly eliminate slum construction within the Kingdom.

HRRP Project

As a result of repeated such unwanted events of building collapse, the government of the Kingdom of Bahrain hired a private firm, carried out an evaluation of several oldest places in Bahrain, especially in Manama and Muharraq governorates where the risk of building collapse is higher than in other places and finally the report was submitted to the government. Having reviewed the evaluation report with frequent and increasing insistence by municipal councils, members of Deputy Council and citizens, a project titled “Housing Rehabilitation and Renovation Program (HRRP)” under the Ministry of Housing was successfully completed in 2014. The estimated cost of such a project was around ￡100 million. But unfortunately, this project was then suddenly stopped without knowing the reasons, but the prevailing reason is a financial reason which should not be considered as an obstacle reason as long as the lives of people staying in such unsafe condition houses are threatened. However, there is a desire by the Deputy Council to revive such a project as there is a high number of dilapidated houses 2790 that have been neither demolished nor rebuilt yet. These houses pose a high risk to the health, safety and security of citizens living in the same house and the surrounding houses as they are in danger of collapse. Most of the owners of these houses are elderly who do not have a stable source of income or a pension that enables them to renovate the house themselves Indeed, most of these homes suffer from the problem of cracks, insects and rodents that inhabit them, which poses a threat to their health and safety. Unfortunately, a high number of such houses remain occupied.

Nobody can deny that such project is highly appreciated as it has countless benefits for the house owners, the improvement of health and safety standards, minimizing the risk of such building, and sending a positive message to all concerned citizens, tours, investors, and related industries, etc. As such initiative project assists with community growth and enhances environmental accountability. In some cases, a common course of action is to completely demolish the house, whereas, it is usually unfortunate to see such old and classic houses, well-known places where we have sometimes unforgettable memories torn up/downwards. However, this is a vital part in terms of maintaining risk-free, ongoing development and renovation communities leading to demonstrating a life bloodstream on the growing and prospering neighborhood. Even; such project was done on a reactive strategy which in fact is undesirable. However, it has a significant impact on the reduction of building collapses as it does have support from the community where citizens are behind and side with such project to get government buy-in and avoid an impasse.