The rescue team comprising of the Fire Brigade, Civil Defence and the Army Engineering Corps headed by a Brigadier General has done a good job working round the clock for eight days on a war footing even though they have limited resources. Obviously, they deserve public admiration. This disaster has certainly provided vital experience for the rescuers in handling catastrophic situations. This will guide them to be more efficient in future rescue operations.

In the days following the Savar tragedy, Bangladeshis celebrated the Bangla New Year in Dhaka by attending various cultural functions organised by many reputable organisations. It appears that none of these organisations observed a minute's silence as a mark of respect to the victims, who died under the rubble of the building collapse, before starting the functions, since there was no mention of it in the prominent dailies. Shocking. This writer hopes to be proved wrong.

A building may collapse due to natural disaster or human error. In this case, natural disaster is absolutely out of the question as no cyclone, earthquake, landslide or soil erosion by severe flood was recorded in Savar on April 11. In these days, however, tall buildings are designed to withstand heavy winds and earthquakes (to a certain magnitude only). So it is human error which might be responsible for the collapse of this factory building.

When investigating the source of the fault, we need to evaluate how a building project is executed. Usually it involves different parties, namely the owner or developer, the financiers, the architects, the engineers, and the insurance companies. The owner may arrange finance from the bank in terms of loan against the property as collateral. As such, the bank has to monitor the progress of the property to see whether their loan is used legitimately.

In Singapore and Malaysia, the architect is responsible for the architectural plan and executing the contract administration of a project right from the start to end, in line with British format. Professional engineer, quantity surveyor, main building contractor, piling contractor, M & E contractor, land surveyor, geotechnical specialist, instrumentation specialist, all are selected by the architect and all of them discharge their professional services under the guidance of the architect. Before the commencement of construction, plans and construction drawings with calculations, duly endorsed by the professional engineer, are submitted to the government authority for approval.

In Singapore, BCA (Building and Construction Authority) is the government body responsible for approving these plans. The engineer in a project is totally responsible for the design of structural members, workmanship and supervision of the construction conforming to the usage of approved materials in accordance with the standard code of practice. Both Singapore and Malaysia have their own standard of practice, which actually endorses the use of BS (British Standard) code of practice for execution.

Nevertheless, some countries go by the American Standard say ACI (for concrete structure) and AWS (for welding). Japan has its own code of practice that is called the JIS. They're all basically same. Bangladeshi engineers probably follow the American codes in their designs. In most countries, an engineer is required to register in a professional body to obtain a certificate to do his or her practice. Of course, he or she should have valid qualifications, which are set by the government authority, to comply with.

According to the newspaper reports, the Bangladesh government is yet to approve such an institution (Professional Engineer's Board) despite constant pressure from the Institute of Engineers since the early 1990s. It seems the PE Board issue has failed to take off thanks to bureaucratic bottlenecks. What a poor showing! Now, it is the poor factory workers who are paying the price! Mind you, the failed building was an industrial building whose loading capacity, ceiling height, and other parameters are unlike the specifications for residential buildings.

In any building disaster, the authority first holds the architect responsible until a necessary report is submitted by him spelling out the reason of failure. The reason: is it because of inadequate structural design, faulty workmanship, use of substandard materials, lack of quality control, foundation failure due to wrong piling system, unauthorised additional floor construction, installation of unapproved machines, unspecified vibration of the production machines, goods storage exceeding the floor capacity, utility service mishap or combination of few? Generally, before a building collapses to the ground for unsound construction, it sends out distress signals for a period of time, showing cracks in the structural columns, walls and floors, giving sufficient time for the rectification or evacuation of the occupants and materials. The pattern of initial cracks in the structural members -- which are often monitored closely by installing sensitive instruments -- may predict the mode of failure in the days ahead.

Singapore experienced a similar fate for the first time in its history in1986, when the Hotel New World, a 6-storey building that stood for 15 years at Serangoon Road, suddenly collapsed. All 50 people trapped in the debris were rescued: 17 alive and 33 dead. Even narrow tunnels were dug in the rescue efforts to reach the victims trapped in the basement floor. A commission of inquiry was then set up to investigate the cause of collapse. The finding stated the main reasons of the hotel building collapse were faulty design, shoddy workmanship, and slicing of the structural members by the renovation contractor. This brought a valuable message to the building authority who then introduced The Accredited Checker System to address the concern of the lack of independent check on the design by the professional engineer. Also for addition, alternation and renovation works of the existing structures, the owner by law is required to engage a licensed contractor and to get approval from the relevant authority.

For the Savar disaster case, a fact finding committee consisting of renowned practicing structural engineers, architects, academics from engineering institutions, building contractors, deep foundation experts, geotechnical specialists, lawyers, and foreign experts headed by a Supreme Court judge should be set up to carry out the investigation and submit the finding to the government as to how the building has failed.

At the same time the committee should come up with recommendation for the protective procedures ensuring safe building construction as a fundamental importance and establishing a Professional Engineers Board as top priority. The building professionals can learn from the past lessons of building failures and practice their professions with conscience and dignity and exercise due diligence in their service to the clients with extreme importance to public safety and interest.

The author graduated from BUET in 1965, and is presently Managing Partner of i3-P International, Singapore.