Safety standards are important when building people’s homes

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

Present a written argument to an educated reader with no specialist knowledge of the following topic:

Safety standards are important when building people’s homes. Who should be responsible for enforcing strict building codes – the government or the people who build the homes?

Use your own knowledge and experience and support your arguments with examples and relevant evidence.

You should write at least 250 words.

Model Answer 1:
(Viewpoint: People and owners should be responsible for enforcing strict building codes)

The population of the world is increasing and so does the needs for more houses, commercial buildings and other constructions are escalating as well. The high rising buildings constructions, wood-house constructions etc. require more safety & standard issues while this is being violated often and accidents related to building constructions are increasing. Some people opine that Government is solely responsible to ensuring the safety and codes while others believe that house owners are the persons who should be responsible. In my opinion, a government has a role in setting the rules and following it but it the owners and authority of the building owners who should ensure the standard and safety while constructing the houses and commercial buildings.

First of all, it is out of the scope for the government to appoint necessary manpower and monitoring system in every place where the construction works would occur. Before building any house, people must take the permission from the authority and build the house accordingly. But any accident occurs due to the lack of safety procedure; improper use of tools and materials, unskilled labour, unnecessary rush would be because of the owner’s failure to comply the codes.

The workers, who work for contractions; including the architect, engineer and labour, should know the safety rules and codes and also should protest when they believe that a rule might have been violated and ignored.  The labours should never assent to work in a position which is harmful and risky for them, the engineers should maintain the strict rules instead of blindly following the construction owners order and the local authority should time to time monitor the constructions to avoid the hazards.

In conclusion, the Government does not have the necessary scope to monitor each & every construction in a country and the house owners must know the safety procedures, standards and rules to make sure the safety.

Model Answer 2:
(Viewpoint: Government should be responsible for enforcing strict building codes)

People or commercial constructors build homes for private dwelling or for commercial uses and the number is increasing rapidly as the demand for new buildings is increasing. In all cases of building a new construction safety of dwelling is important. It is home maker’s or contractors responsibility to build houses complying with standard engineering requirements and building codes set by the respective governments. I believe that the government should always be there to strictly enforce building codes, and in the case of non-compliance authorities should take punitive measures. Enforcement of the law is government’s responsibility. Since non-compliance can not only cause hazards to the homeowners, but also to tenants and if in a cooperative or apartment, many co-owners may suffer.

The building codes are regulatory requirements concerning safety and quality of the construction, use of space and others. For example, in an earthquake-prone area, the buildings should not be very high and the design and structure must have higher earthquake resistance. Big houses and long buildings (i.e. academic departments, hotels and hostels) require dilatation every 15-20 meters so that in a heavy earthquake, only part of a building collapses, not the whole. Moreover, the quality of the materials used in construction and electric wiring, and the gas connection should pass minimum safety standards. Adequate entry & exit facilities and emergency exist, fire extinguishers are also very important is establishments like factories, hall rooms, discos, party centres.

In cases of a wooden house, wood must be coated with fire-resistant paint. In large apartments, office buildings, hall rooms and lobbies of hotels, fire-barriers made of rubber and steel are used to prevent the spreading of fire. Similarly, in areas of frequent hailstorms, skylights must not be used, and if so, must be protected by steel shutters.

Many constructors often tend to ignore the minimum safety requirements to minimise costs which jeopardise people’s life. Many private homemakers do not know details of these standards and precautions. It is the responsibility of the government to disseminate such essential knowledge and monitor the compliance of builders, developers and makers of houses. However, the builders cannot avoid their responsibility anyway.

In conclusion, in this modern world, the government is ultimately responsible for its entire citizen’s safety and good life. It is also the government’s responsibility to enforce strict building code. If the negligence of any government agency jeopardises people’s life, the government will be held responsible.

(Approximately 390 words)

(This model answer has been prepared by the site developer. However, please note that this is just one example out of many possible answers.)

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