Editorial
Construction work turning perilous
Enforcement of safety code urgently needed
In this horizontally and vertically growing metropolis construction hyperactivity is a common sight. Apart from heaps of construction materials narrowing down roads and the engineering part causing noise, under-construction buildings have become a veritable source of danger to public life. Workers without safety gears tend to fall from a height losing life or limbs, a pedestrian might be hit lethally by falling brick or a certain broken bamboo panel or scrawny metallic pieces might just have a free fall badly bruising a passerby. Even a surrounding property may be damaged through callous building activities.
Just as the incidence of accidents is seeing a deadly upswing, so also has the negligence on the part of the building owners and virtually non-existing oversight authorities increased by the day. The primary cause for fatalities is put down to non-compliance with Bangladesh National Building Code (BNBC) formulated as early as in 1993. But not until November 15, 2006 was the BNBC gazetted. The very delay in publishing it in the form of a gazette notification is proof of low priority given to such a matter. Moreover, on being gazetted, the code has now become mandatory for all concerned to be following and enforcing it, but nothing tangible has happened on the implementation front as yet.
The code lays down safety precautions both for construction and demolition of buildings. Apart from providing safety gears to the workers, "protective scaffold is a must at any building construction site for safety of the pedestrians, passers-by and neighbourhood houses".
Public works ministry is supposed to designate an authority and delegate power to a body of officials to supervise under-construction buildings to ensure that their owners comply with laid down safety rules and procedures.
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