BY SAMSON SADE

FREELANCE JOURNALIST

The inaction by authorities to act decisively to demolish the hotel development at the Rove Seafront bears the hallmark of corruption.

Work continues on the hotel despite expert reports explicitly calling for total demolition because of the threat it poses to human life in the event of seismic activities.

This sentiment was echoed by a local developer who requested that his name be withheld for fear of retribution.

The call for demolition was contained in a 2018 ‘Structural Engineering Technical Review Report’ as a result of hosts of structural and engineering faults and failures.

The developer said it is sad that authorities are gambling with the lives of  people of Solomon Islands by allowing such shoddy work to continue.

“It is paramount that all structures whether it be a family dwelling, a hotel or a shop or whatever, must be built with human safety considerations,” he said.

He mentioned that had the hotel development locally owned, authorities would have sprung into action a long time ago.

The 2018 Structural Engineering Technical Review Report overtly recommended that the building be completely demolished and reconstructed because of non-compliant with SI building code, faulty and therefore unsafe for human habitation in any form or shape.

It is worth noting that Solomon Island is located in the Pacific Ring of Fire which is an area prone to very high seismic activities.

This indicates that a 0.4 – 0.5g peak ground acceleration with an equivalent seismic base sheer force of about 40 – 50% is transmitted into the building during a code prescribed seismic event.

With a four storey Hotel Development sitting on a poorly reclaimed land with structural defects and failures to begin with, the result can be fatal.

“For this reason alone I wish to call on authorities to act immediately to prevent a future tragedy from happening,” the developer said.

According to the SI building Code with reference to modern day structural engineering, it is mandatory that a building must be designed and constructed to satisfy the performance requirements stipulated in the relevant codes.

For the structural component of a building, the key performance requirement is to ensure the structure does not fail, collapse and injure or kill building users.

Sadly, the Hotel Development at the Rove Seafront is structurally non-compliant and in the event of seismic activities, a structural collapse is imminent.

Premier consults with landowners on development

BY JENNIFER KUSAPA

THE Premier of Guadalcanal Province is moving forward in achieving better development in the best interest of the people.

Premier Francis Sade this week opened a forum to hear landowners’ views about their land and issues holding them back from developing them.

Mr Sade told the landowners that they need to sort out their differences and open up their land for development so that they can benefit from it.

He said Ruaniu land is 250 hectares and there are investors who are interested but landowners need to first open up their land for development.

“I have interests in those alienated for investments as last week, I went to Gizo for the Premiers meeting and we have agreed that the Government should give us the Federal system in 2026 that was in the communique.

“So, when I look back to us Guadalcanal province, we are not prepared for the State Government, because there was no investment in Guadalcanal, we have no township, Honiara is not ours, Honiara belongs to the national Government,” Premier Sade said.

He said when they were elected into the Provincial Executive they identified four areas to have their township and in order to develop the township, the Province needs to have developments.

And there is a need to open up developments from Henderson to Marau and Kakabona to Variana land, Sade said.

Therefore, all alienated land within those areas need to be identified and who owns the land – whether it is a perpetual title still under the commissioner of lands or already given back to the people.

“That is the only way forward for landowners and the communities and once we are not allowing our land to be developed then we are not going to benefit from our land when we adopt the State Government system,” Sade said.

He also told the landowners that the province is willing to support in any way to resolve any issues between tribes and families before development can take place.

Meanwhile women leaders and chiefs who attended the meeting agreed to the idea initiated by the Premier.

During the consultation a task force was also set up to consult with communities who reside in Ruaniu land about the idea and will provide feedback to the Provincial Executive.

Premier Sade also thanked the women, young people, chiefs and elders who attended the consultation for supporting his call to have an open forum about developments on their land.