SANTO DOMINGO - Teodoro Tejada, former president of the Dominican College of Engineers, Architects and Surveyors (Codia), asserts that the maintenance of a country's public infrastructure is the most effective way to prevent loss of life, in addition to the resources invested to mitigate the damage caused after a natural phenomenon.
In that regard, the professional called on the authorities to implement a public policy plan for the maintenance of road, hydraulic and building infrastructure works, to guarantee their useful life over time.
“To get the most out of public investments made in constructions, such as bridges, highways, rural roads, dams, irrigation canals, as well as aqueducts and housing, it is necessary to implement and schedule a rigorous maintenance plan,” explained Tejada, while participating in the XV International Congress of Civil Engineering, held in Panama.
The construction professional presented to the Panamanian Society of Engineers and Architects (SPIA) on the topic of "Routine Maintenance in the Face of the Effects of Natural Disasters," as part of the thematic axis of Sustainability and Climate Change.
“The lack of maintenance on the intake structures of the aqueducts, the failure to remove sediment from the dams, and the failure to prune large trees, which knock down power line poles, are some of the factors that cause these problems,” he said.
The former president of Codia stated that the lack of weed or vegetation control on highways and rural roads, as well as the lack of cleaning and the failure to extract materials, reduces the useful life of these works by more than 50%.
The engineer recalled that a study by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) revealed that "for every dollar we fail to invest in maintenance, we have to spend seven dollars on disaster mitigation.".
Source: Listín Diario with modified text.
