Poly students challenged on infrastructure development

Professional architects and skilled land surveyors can assist in curbing increased challenges of substandard infrastructural development in the country’s cities and towns.

Malawi Housing Corporation (MHC) chief executive officer Eunice Napolo said this in Blantyre yesterday when she presided over the 2017 The Polytechnic Faculty of Built Environment (Fobe) final year students’ symposium under the theme Built Environment: Enhancing the Quality of Living Environment.

She said most of Malawi’s urban areas are embroiled in chaos revolving around housing and environmental risks, among others, due to lack of expert advice  on which areas can be developed.

“The major problems we are facing at the moment include the swelling of slams and encroachment into restricted pieces of land. There are some places which are reserved for some reasons; even MHC or [city] councils do not have the mandate to develop, but you will see some people trespassing into those prohibited areas,” Napolo said.

In his remarks, dean of Faculty of Built Environment Rodrick Chilipunde agreed with Napolo that most of the chaotic designs and management of buildings in the country have resulted from the public’s choice to go for alternative labour at the expense of skilled work.

“We would like the public to know that the right people to do this job are our graduates from the built environment faculty. We see that many people who are not built environment professionals are trying to do our work in a bad way and we see a lot of confusion in the construction sector,” he said. n