Baku Will Be A Communal Grave

If a Soviet-era bureaucrat is impressed by your level of corruption and incompetence, you are champion!

Here's a really long interview from Trend (Russia) with the President of the Federal National and Cultural Autonomy of Russia's Azerbaijanis, Soyun Sadikhov. In 1981 Sadikhov began working in Moscow construction organization of Glavmosremont. From 1986 to 2000 he was deputy head of Mosrekonstruktsia. Now, Sadikhov consults for Russian and foreign construction companies.

I've edited for length and emphasized key findings. Photos from Day.Az

Regarding the tragedy of the collapsed building in Baku, in your opinion, what is the cause for the incident?

- ....When a construction boom began in Baku, when I saw the process of this construction and the specialists engaged in this, I understood and relayed my fears that this type of construction has no future. That is a real communal grave....I saw that they made use of very low-quality reinforcements. The reinforcements being used in Baku absolutely do not correspond with the seismic conditions of Baku. Baku is considered a seismic zone.... Moreover, I paid attention to the concrete and quality of the cement. Cement can be of different durability. There are corresponding indexes – 100, 150, 200, 300, 400, 500. In Baku they mainly use the cement with a rating of only 200-durability. That is incorrect, as this poor durability is not adequate for a monolithic building.

At a construction site on Nizami street, which is one of the central streets of Baku, I noticed that fitters were incorrectly tying together the reinforcement and creating reinforcement frameworks in the wrong way. Reinforcement and reinforcement frameworks play a much more important role for monolithic buildings than concrete. I came up to the head of the construction and asked what those standards of incorrect construction of reinforcement frameworks were, but did not receive a clear response. Then I learned that the construction labourers were mainly from regions, mainly day-labourers, who have no idea about the technical side of construction work at all.

As for the recent tragedy, I attentively followed the news, saw a photo of the collapsed building and was unpleasantly astonished. In the image I saw that this monolithic construction broke up as would a toy-building. But that cannot happen to a monolithic building, it is just impossible. Brick or panel buildings can break up in this way, but not monolithic ones....Moreover, I was astonished to see how all reinforcement construction bent and the concrete crumbled like sand. The first reason is that the cement was of low-quality. Moreover, concrete-use techniques were not at all observed. At least seven days are required for concrete to become solid. During this period the concrete should not be loaded. Furthermore, climate should be taken into account. Weather in Baku is hot. Apparently, they did not water the concrete. When concrete is not watered in such weather, after pouring the water evaporates. After evaporation concrete loses its durability. Therefore, in order to avoid loss of durability, concrete is usually watered in hot countries until it becomes completely solid.

- How would you comment on the construction boom in Azerbaijan? 

- You know, I very often visit Baku and observe the ongoing changes. As for this mass and low-quality construction, I have said it many times and I still insist that a huge communal grave is being built in Baku. Baku city is being built without a general plan, and without expertise. In the chase for money and profits people forget to think of how people will live in these buildings.

How can one construct a skyscraper without taking into consideration services issues?! A lot of buildings are being constructed in the center of the city, but there are no new services. Nobody deals with construction of new sewerage, drainage, or water-supply systems. At a location, where previously a five-story building containing 100 families built during the USSR stood, now a twenty-two-story building is being constructed, but all the services remain the same. That is absurd. Is it so difficult to understand that a new building means many more dwellers, so new larger sewerage pipes and drainage is required? One cannot construct buildings without preliminary reconstruction of services. Alas, in Baku it is not done, constituent parts of construction process are not taken into account.

...Baku is a seismic area with the probability of earthquakes measuring 9 on the Richter scale. Moreover, research of Baku's soil from space satellite imagery showed that the city is disposed to frequent landslides. The areas of Baku, Makhachkala, and the entire coastal part of the Caspian Sea are considered to be landslide zones. Consequently, the maximum number of storeys that can be built in Baku is between twelve and sixteen. Besides, due to seismic conditions, only monolithic buildings with floating foundations should be constructed in Baku, like it is in Japan, for instance. In short, I think many violations are being made in construction in Baku and in providing adequate services and the guilty and responsible party of that is the mayor of the city and those in charge of the general plan, construction etc....

 

...If a thorough investigation is carried out and a laboratory conclusion is made regarding the constructed buildings, I am sure it will show that 90% of them should be demolished. Everywhere in Baku they use Ukrainian reinforcements, which are only adequate for construction of maximum seven-storey buildings, or they use Sumgait reinforcements, which are made of wastes and are not of better quality. Turkish and Pakistani technologies dominate in Baku. By the way, these countries have a good number of examples of destruction and victims when even light earthquakes occur. And that is due to low-quality of construction.

Now in this blind rush for wealth people forget the most important thing: which is human lives. After all, in Soviet times, Azerbaijan had top-class builders, professionals, and experts. Why not involve them now? Why have they disappeared? Now yesterday's shepherd considers himself to be a builder, as it was in Russia at the beginning of the 90s....

Again I want to say that the guilt of this irresponsibility lies with the construction companies and their heads, employing such pseudo-labourers. Greed and cupidity of construction organizations, officials, investors financing such construction is what now happens in Azerbaijan. Such construction should be immediately stopped and measures should be taken to prevent the construction of communal graves for Baku residents. It would be better to construct less but with high quality.

....It is disgusting that nobody carries the responsibility for this chaos and nobody stops it. I shall give an example. I personally know a man who was trading in Moscow and now he is engaged in construction work in Baku. He even erected several buildings in the center. He involved people from the regions, established a construction organization, bribed the adequate persons and is constructing now.

- What are the reasons for the rise in prices in real estate in Baku?

There is a strict monopoly for that in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan has no rivalry in that field, no free access of foreign construction companies. There is a close circle. For example, a brother of some high official is engaged in construction and there is no place for anyone else. Another large problem is general bribery. In London, which is incomparable even for Moscow with its very high prices, if something is constructed and a square metre costs, for instance, three thousand pounds, it is worth the money, for you get a flat with all the conveniences, furniture, etc. As for Azerbaijan, it is not even worth comparing. Very high prices for flats, while elementary safety regulations are not even observed.

The city should have a general plan which should be strictly observed without deviation in order to protect the city from disfiguration. In Baku, we can watch how the architectural appearance of the central part of the old Baku with its Italian and French architecture styles is grossly violated.

Comments

[Vagabondblogger]

Great article! Unfortunately, it just reinforces a lot of what I had heard before.

I can only say, I am happy we got the hell out of there.

[Connie]

replace "Baku" by "Yerevan" and you have the same situation
Armenia, Azerbaidjan, they share a lot ;=)

I wrote about this (in german) as well last year...

greed is everywhere and especially in construction corruption is very high

[Bakuit]

I live in Baku and I am very unhappy with what's going on here. I think somebody should do something...but what?