The president of the Mozambican Association of Engineers, Feliciano Dias, has called for more investment in order to prepare public infrastructures to resist natural disasters, taking into account that the country has been the victim of extreme climate events.
According to Dias, who was speaking on Friday, in Maputo, during the launch of the first Regulatory Instrument for Engineering Acts, there is a need to invest more in the maintenance of infrastructures to make them more resilient to climatic events.
“There is a great lack of maintenance of infrastructures, and this contributes to early degradation”, he said. “Mozambique has a coastline of almost three thousand kilometers, and the buildings along the coast suffer a lot because of the sea winds”.
The quality of infrastructures, he explained, is always questioned in the country, especially after catastrophic weather events. “The problem lies in maintenance, which is often only considered after it has deteriorated”, he said, adding that “any projects should only be entrusted to engineers who are recognized and qualified by the Association.”
However, according to the Mozambican Federation of Building Contractors, which accused the government of favoring Chinese companies in public tenders for public works contracts, there is also a need to be transparent during the hiring of engineers.
Trainees, Dias said, cannot take responsibility for any engineering project.
AIM
