UAE storms bring lessons for construction sector
‘Buildings in the UAE have to be built to withstand the elements’
The heavy storms that hit the UAE this week caused serious damage to buildings and infrastructure across the country – and spell some equally serious lessons for the construction sector.
Teams were on Thursday working to restore the damage caused by the storm, which led to flooded streets, waterlogged buildings and structural collapses.
The extent of the damage points to two main issues, according to Rhys Steel, a Chartered Building Surveyor in Cavendish Maxwell’s Project and Building Consultancy team.
“The first is that buildings and infrastructure are not designed to consider the likelihood of this extreme weather as there is generally the attitude that ‘it never rains in the UAE’ and secondly the issue of whether you are insured if your properties or possessions are damaged,” Steel wrote for Big Project ME.
Leaks in buildings point to a failure of the above-ground waterproofing that should protect UAE buildings from the natural elements, while flooded roads illustrate a lack of sufficient drainage, according to Steel.
EXPERT COLUMN: UAE storms point to weak spots in building design, and attitudes
“The design of buildings and infrastructure does not consider heavy rainfall and therefore villas do not have gutters and downpipes, balconies in high rise residential towers tend to have small drainage outlets and roads do not have drains for the water to run into and as a result the water ponds,” he wrote.
“As we have seen this week this can cause streets to effectively become rivers as highlighted on social media with members of the public kayaking through what previously were streets.”
Steel recommended that experts are involved at the “the earliest possible stage” of building design to advise on defective waterproofing details.
“If we have learnt anything from the last few months it is that buildings in the UAE have to be built to withstand the elements,” he wrote.
“They need to be constructed with consideration of high temperatures, heavy rainfall, strong winds and the risk of fire, and insurance needs to be adequate to reflect the risk.”
EXPERT COLUMN: UAE storms point to weak spots in building design, and attitudes
