The Gombe State Urban Planning and Development Board has urged the residents to always submit their building plan for approval to check rampant cases of building collapse.
The General Manager of the board, Mr Stephen Manaja, gave the advice in an interview in Gombe recently.
Manaja said the essence of regulating buildings was to protect residents from building collapse, which was a threat to life and also to check open defecation.
He stated the residents that it was an offence to build without approval, saying that any building within and around Gombe township without approval was an illegal structure, adding that such a structure would attract sanctions from the board.
“We are advising the people to always bring their building plans for proper scrutiny so that it can be checked for deficiency that can lead to building collapse. It is not about levy collection but we want to make sure built structures meet laid-down regulations,’’ Manaja said.
According to him, for a high-rise building, the board will want to know if the supervising engineer is a registered engineer, while the board engineers will also monitor from the foundation to completion of the building.
He said the provision of toilet facilities in a building plan was a major requirement for approval because most illegal structures lacked enough of such facilities, thereby resulting into open defecation.
