The adoption five years ago of the Bangladesh National Building Code has had no impact on safety conditions at construction sites because Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha in Dhaka and similar authorities around the country continue to ignore their responsibility to enforce the code's provisions that relate to workplace safety.
Rajuk's chairman Mohammad Nurul Huda told New Age that although the agency had responsibility for the enforcement of the building code in Dhaka, its inspectors did not specifically monitor the three chapters in the code that relate to worker safety and health.
'Now we have no inspectors or a separate team to monitor worker's safety,' he said, blaming the lack of manpower.
'We gave a proposal to
the establishment ministry for an increase in our manpower.'
The failure of Rajuk to force developers to comply with their safety obligations under the building code was criticised by safety activists.
Repon Chowdhury, executive director of the Bangladesh Occupational Safety Health and Environment Foundation, told New Age, 'Construction workers are dying every day because of lack of compliance with the BNBC and unless Rajuk gets serious about enforcement of the code, such failures will continue.'
Sekender Ali Mina, the programme director of the Safety and Rights, added, 'The situation at construction sites is effectively lawless as even though there are detailed obligations set out in the code, Rajuk does not check whether they are being complied with.'
The superintendent of the High Court writ section, Mr Shahjahan, has, meanwhile, told New Age that it was yet to receive a copy of the written judgement, delivered in court seven months ago, that required the government to establish an agency to enforce safety provisions in the building code.
The ruling, given by Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, who has recently been promoted to the Appellate Division, and Justice Gobinda Chandra Tagore in October 2010 has no effect until it is written and signed.
The legal ruling was given following a public interest litigation petition filed by the Bangladesh Legal Aid Service Trust, OSHE and Safety and Rights.
Sekender of the Safety and Rights said, 'It is totally unacceptable that the High Court is not giving the final order. It is very unusual for the High Court to take such a long time before signing an order.'
According to the Safety and Rights, in the three years between 2008 and 2010, there were 365 deaths of construction workers reported in newspapers around the country, making the building sector the largest contributor of workplace deaths in Bangladesh. In comparison, the manufacturing sector contributed 314 deaths.
In the past week, three workers — Nur Islam, 25, his brother Nuruzzaman, 28, and Mohammad Alam, 28 — died when they fell from the rooftop of a seven-storey under-construction building in the Bashundhara Residential Area in the capital when they were trying to shift a crane.
The BNBC requires that developers establish guard rails around open floor edges, provide safety ropes to prevent falls and have safety nets to stop unnecessary injuries if they do fall.
Initial reports from the scene of the triple deaths suggested that the East West Property Development Ltd, owned by the Bashundhara Group, did not have in place these safety provisions although the company says that it provided all necessary safety equipment.
In the past week, the Safety and Rights wrote to Rajuk stating that it would consider taking legal action against the agency unless it investigated the deaths 'to determine whether any criminal offences have been committed.'
Research carried out in 2009 for the World Health Organisation found that breaches of basic duties set out in the BNBC were commonplace.
The researchers also found that only 5 per cent of the 100 workers they interviewed had received any kind of formal training in relation to safety and health with over 50 per cent of the male workers judging that their work was 'very unsafe.'
Three-fourths of the workers surveyed also thought that work was either 'bad' or 'very bad' for their health and nearly half of them had suffered a 'serious injury' in five years which resulted in them having to go to a physician.
Nearly a third of the workers lost their job as a result of their injury.
These findings were reflected in what workers told New Age earlier this week.
Idris, a worker at a development called Panthapath Ciesta near the Green Road said that the workers at the site were not provided with any safety equipment such as helmets, gloves, goggles or special clothes for their work.
Another worker at an under-construction building of the Dom-Inno Developers Limited, on the DIT Road at Malibagh, said that there was no first aid box and they were not given helmets or gloves during work.
Saymon, a contractor at the Green Road development, claimed that they did provide safety equipment to the workers but they did not want to use them.
'There are many things in the building code which are not maintained in the real life,' he said. 'So if you ask me why we do not force the workers to use them, I cannot answer the question.'
Supervisors on the site were, however, unable to show New Age any examples of equipment.
Abdullah Al-Mamun, a representative from the Dom-Inno Developers Limited, told New Age that they always tried to ensure worker's safety while the workers were unaware or reluctant to use safety equipment most of the time.
Nasrul Hamid, the president of the Real Estate and Housing Association of Bangladesh, which represents private developers said that his organisation could not act like a watchdog monitoring his members.
'We have no legal right to punish our members if any worker dies or if the companies do not provide the workers with proper safety gear,' he said.
'All we can do is to make them aware of our own organisation's code of conduct.'
Source: New Age