Following the collapse of a high-rise building in Baku, Carpetblogger has an interesting post quoting from an interview with Soyun Sadikhov by the Russian Trend News Agency on the construction boom in Azerbaijan’s capital. Well, I say interesting, but perhaps I should say alarming — and not least because the same issue probably apply to Yerevan as well where similar criticisms have already been voiced about the largely corruption-driven development downtown.

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. […]

[…]

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.

[…]

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.

The full post is here.