Seek building materials that meet standards: TBS

PEOPLE seeking to build houses and other projects should scrutinise before acquiring building materials that meet the required standards and true value for money.

Mwanza Regional Administrative Secretary, Mr Emil Kasagala said on Wednesday after meeting importers and manufacturers of building materials in the region that scrutiny before buying building materials was an important step in addressing the problem of low-quality building materials in the country.

“Building materials that do not meet the true value for money like iron sheets, nails and iron bars can result in huge loss to buyers and weak building infrastructure,” he is quoted as saying in a statement issued by TBS.

He said already most people are forced to spend more money than they could have otherwise injected into other projects for maintaining the houses because they used knowingly or unwittingly poor quality materials.

He said manufacturers and importers of building materials have a fundamental obligation to observe the country’s law to avoid selling poor quality building materials in the local market.

He said substandard building materials make locally made materials uncompetitive in the market and ultimately kill the domestic industries.

A TBS official from the Lake Zone, Ms Nuru Mwasulama, said public awareness campaigns carried out by TBS on the need to produce quality building materials are of paramount importance.

“People planning to build houses and other projects should make due diligence in obtaining materials that meet TBS standards,” she said.

She insisted that importers and manufacturers have the primary obligation to ensure they sell building materials that meet the country’s standards.

TBS will continue to conduct a series of programmes including frequent inspections to eliminate low-quality products from markets, but before that, creating awareness of quality products to manufacturers and importers is recommended.