Civil engineers issue fresh SOS on dangerous buildings (with video)

Civil engineers on Wednesday called on the state to subsidise the anti-seismic upgrading of buildings following the devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria.

The Association of Civil Engineers (Spolmik) also released a video showing the disrepair of buildings around the island that includes images from the collapse of a number of balconies last year from shoddy buildings. There were no earthquakes or bad weather at the time.

Spolmik in an accompanying statement, expressed its “strong concern about the critical and dangerous point which the ageing building stock of Cyprus has reached and the risk of human lives being lost”.

It called on the state to subsidise the anti-seismic upgrading of buildings and to immediately establish legislative regulations for building inspections and the issuance of inspection certificates.

Similar calls were made by the technical chamber Etek in the wake of the recent earthquake. “Eventually time runs out, the procrastination must end, and decisions be taken immediately,” the chamber said last week.

Cyprus introduced anti-seismic codes for buildings around 1994. According to government figures there are more than 400,000 residential buildings and more than 30,000 non-residential buildings around the island. Almost half of the residential buildings are single-family houses. Best estimates put at close to 120,000 to 130,000 being built before the code was introduced.