With the increasing construction activities in the country, ensuring a safety culture at the worksite has become important. In an effort towards promoting the safety measures in construction works, the Department of Roads (DoR) in collaboration with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) organised the third seminar on construction safety in Thimphu yesterday.
Bhutan recorded over 40 construction accidents last year. Of which, 40 per cent are fatal accidents. Officials say the number might be higher as many cases go unreported.
The Labour Minister Ugyen Dorji who attended the seminar said, “The figures and statistics remind us of how urgent, how important it is for all the stakeholders involved in the construction works. It is important that all of us take this very seriously and ensure safety measures for those who are engaged in construction sites including the construction workers. Lack of safety measures in the construction sites is not only a threat to the workers themselves, but it is also a threat to the general public.”
Over 80 participants from government agencies, corporations, private companies involved in construction activities attended the seminar. Experts from JICA, the labour ministry, Construction Development Corporation and two private companies presented on various construction safety and occupational health and safety measures.
“Awareness that we do in the construction industry is very limited mainly because we only focus on construction quality and the progress of the work and the cost. But so far, the safety aspect has not been given the top priority. The reason why the safety culture is not picking up is that especially in government constructions, we do not normally have good construction safety guidelines,” Tenzin, the Director-General of DoR, said.
He added, “The other thing is the cost of occupational health and safety is not included in our estimates when we do the estimates and it is not included in the BOQ. BOQ is a document where the contractors quote their price. Latter when we implement the contract, it is very difficult because they have not quoted it and we cannot enforce it.”
The seminar also saw participants suggesting relevant stakeholder like the labour ministry establish safety committees and recruit safety officers in the ministry and companies. As of now, only three construction companies have functioning safety committees and safety officers.
Pema Tshewang
