Editorial
Building code violations with impunity
It is time these are treated as criminal offences
The National Building Code, 2006 is perhaps the least complied with set of rules in the country. Its multi-faceted violations range from breaching the mandatory features of the approved plans like leaving space between two buildings, leeway to the road and lack of parking space through use of poor quality construction materials to complete indifference to workers' safety during the building construction phase.
Needless to say, such breach of law is hardly proceeded against. By one reckoning, both in terms of residential construction as well as raising of commercial or industrial buildings, the building code has been so violated that if an earthquake measuring 7 on the Richter scale should hit Dhaka 90 percent of the buildings would be razed to the ground.
This is a horrendous prospect that we must bear in mind and take precautions against with earthquake-resistant reinforcement of the buildings.
Then let's remind ourselves of the jarring news items we have often read of inclined or partially sinking buildings, cracks in high-rise buildings and collapsing building floors. These kill people, let alone an earthquake which can take a toll of lives that could be avoided with proper engineering. So, the sloppy construction could even portend mass killing.
But one of the least addressed subject is perhaps the fatality among construction workers themselves. At least 107 construction workers died in 2007 while working. Most of these deaths were caused by electrocution, falls from heights, building or wall collapses and subsidence of trenches.
We appreciate the efforts of Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST), the Labourer's Safety Forum and the Occupational Safety and Health Environment (OSHE) Foundation to bring the workers' safety issue into focus. The seminar they held yielded three important recommendations: one, violation of building code be considered a criminal offence; two, handing down punishment and fining to building code violators; and three, compensation to the victims. We endorse the proposed measures wholeheartedly.
We note, however, that the court ruling issued two months ago asking the government to explain why the court should not order it to establish an authority to enforce the Bangladesh National Building Code, 2006 has yet to be responded to. Let an authority be set up to be exclusively tasked with implementation of the building code.
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