Avoiding avoidable disasters

True, this time round, the Prime Minister, several Ministers and senior officials of the Armed Forces visited the accident sites. Photo opportunities were not lost. An effort was also made to salvage the situation by the Housing and Public Works Minister who forthwith piloted through the Jatiyo Sangsad the Building Construction (Amendment) Bill 2006. It was adopted by voice vote after discussion in the House. This step was meant to reflect the seriousness of the government in tackling the existing malaise that has affected the construction and maintenance sectors.

Two weeks later many questions have surfaced. The Prime Minister, one must admit can give directions. She cannot however go and start doing what the inspectors working for Rajuk should do. She has in her recent speech delivered in the Engineer's Institution of Bangladesh, asked for appropriate steps to be taken for ensuring safety of the people in their work areas. This however is not being done.

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Passing another law is not enough. Care has to be taken to ensure that its provisions are implemented to the letter. It is not enough to rely only on the deterrence factor punishment up to seven years in prison for the guilty and fines of not less than Taka fifty thousand. The immediate response from analysts has been predictable. This new legal amendment will further facilitate responsible officials taking higher bribes to facilitate and overlook faulty construction. Mr Suranjit Sen Gupta, MP from the Awami League has also made another pertinent observation. He has pointed out that the amendment does not cover the construction of skyscrapers in urban areas. The government has defended the amendment and the Public Works Minister has said that the amendment is holistic in nature and covers everyone including engineers, architects, designers, contractors associated with construction and owners of the property.

I will not go into the merits of the arguments offered by the different sides. I shall however draw the attention of the Public Works Minister to some desperate statistics. Surveys carried out in the recent past have indicated that Dhaka City has 4376 buildings between six and twenty-two stories in 66 of its localities. We are talking here of a city with a total resident population of over twelve million. We are also discussing a megapolis, which has grown and is still growing at a geometric rate because of rural to urban migration. I came to Dhaka in February 1950 and its population at that time was just over one hundred seventy thousand. The demography has since then expanded at a brutal rate and the facilities have not kept pace due to resource constraint.

Everytime there is a serious accident related to faulty construction and non-observance of other building codes, the authorities immediately resort to excuses that they are understaffed. They did so nearly a year ago when the Spectrum garments factory collapsed in Savar. Surveys carried out by civil society representatives have indicated that there are nearly 50,000 registered factories in the country and that there are less than fifty inspectors to monitor them. These statistics are just unacceptable.

In their reaction, as published in the Press, Rajuk officials have mentioned that they have no idea of how many of these tall structures in the capital have been actually constructed consistent with the building codes. They have also stated that over 95 percent of these structures have been built with deviations from approved plans. In the meantime, reports have also surfaced that hundreds of files containing architectural drawings are missing from the Rajuk's archives. How can these happen?

This can only take place with the active connivance of those in charge of monitoring construction in Rajuk. If they are so useless and cannot ensure safety, they should either lose their jobs or be transferred to posts in the remote areas of Bangladesh, where their scope of doing harm cane be limited.

I want to turn now to some other areas related to the two latest unfortunate incidents.

Newspapers have reported that cases have been filed against the owners of the KTS garments factory in Chittagong for contravening safety provisions as enumerated in existing law. Good. However, this cannot be enough. Why should there be any confusion in the number of workers who were present in the premises at the time of the fire? Why should also there be discrepancy in the number of fatalities? It is now being openly speculated that these differences in numbers are due to the question of paying compensation to the victims. The greater the number affected the more the compensation. Hence, the reduction in numbers. This is indeed very sad.

Another aspect has surfaced out of this tragedy in Chittagong. Despite many reminders given in the past, we apparently still continue to suffer from inadequate hospital facilities pertaining to burn victims. Some of those burnt were brought to Dhaka, but they have been the lucky few. What about the others? I have written about this in the past and reiterate it again let us have suitable burn-care units in each district headquarters. There should also be excellent facilities for undertaking orthopedic surgery and plastic surgery all over the country. This is an important step and requires political will. Let every political party include this in their respective election manifestos. It will require resources and external funding and technical support. Professional expertise will also have to be sought for necessary training. I am sure that if our government were to seek assistance in this regard from our development partners, this could be arranged.

The methods of response both in Chittagong and Dhaka have indicated the lack of post-disaster planning on the part of our appropriate rescue agencies.

We have again noted the absence of sonar equipment during the time of carrying out rescue operations. Sniffer dogs are helpful but sonar is the best method of ascertaining the whereabouts of persons amid fallen structures.

After this comes the serious deficiency of heavy equipment to lift broken structures and also the availability of tackling accidents in tall structures. Let us say that a fire breaks out on the twentieth floor of a building. Do we have the mechanism to tackle the situation? What about necessary contingency planning required for tackling large numbers of victims, at multiple points? There is also the issue of having alternative transportation plans to avoid traffic chaos and sufficient ambulances to transport victims to health-care facilities.

I feel seriously worried about these factors. We are woefully equipped in our abilities to coordinate rescue operations. What would we do in case of an earthquake? The politicians are continuously talking about the need to create better disaster management. What about a proper re-assessment with regard to training and management of a typical crisis? The US Authorities have undertaken such a survey and self-analysis after Katrina and have discovered several areas where matters can be improved. We should do the same. The first step might be an open-ended, bi-partisan Parliamentary probe. Subsequently, the findings could be debated and action taken.

Today's article would not be complete without holding the BGMEA and the BKMEA also responsible for their less than serious approach towards such disasters. They are supposed to carefully scrutinize all areas relevant to the setting up of a garment industrial unit. They are not supposed to issue licenses without ascertaining whether all requirements pertaining to safety have been met including emergency safety exists. As is evident, this mostly never takes place. Greed and corruption rule the roost. Accountability is sacrificed for the sake of convenience. We have yet to see culpable action being taken against guilty, non-compliant, recalcitrant unit owners. The BGMEA and the BKMEA must understand that they have to be seen to be observant of the rights of workers. If this is not done, then the industry might suffer severely because of adverse international opinion. This will impact on the government, the country and also the poor workers mostly women, who will become unemployed.

The government has the responsibility of identifying structures, which are potentially hazardous. If they are found to be risky and unfit for human habitation then they must be demolished. Suitable administrative measures need to be taken all over the country and this has to start now.

Muhammad Zamir is a former Secretary and Ambassador who can be reached at mzamir@dhaka.net