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Paper ID: CBM 041


International Conference on Recent Innovation in Civil Engineering for Sustainable Development
(IICSD-2015)
Department of Civil Engineering
DUET - Gazipur, Bangladesh

Construction Safety Practice in Bangladesh: A Case Study in KUET, Mirerdanga and Teliganti
Union

M. H. Islam1*; S. Y. Morshed2 and M. R. Karim3

Abstract
The construction sector is an important and integral part of infrastructure development. It provides a
huge improvement to national economy. A safe work environment in construction assists to keep skilled
employees on the job by reducing accidents. The main objectives of this study are to evaluate the number
of persons whether follow construction safety or not, find out the degree of safety adoption and endorse
how the safety rules can be implemented in construction practice. The study areas are Mirerdanga,
Teliganti union and KUET at Khan Jahan Ali Thana, downtown of Khulna, Bangladesh. These areas are
being developed day by day. In these areas most of the construction works are residential buildings,
educational buildings, industrial buildings and horizontal and vertical extension of existing buildings.
Through the study it was found that about 85% of workers do not adopted any safety measure except
lame footwear in these study areas. Rest 15% of workers adopts poor safety methods. Workers and
building owners follow local indigenous knowledge for construction safety. However most of the
workers do not know what types of safety should have taken and who are supposed to supply the safety
equipment. It is recommended that the regional development authority must regulate safety practice in
construction sector along with the owners, engineers, supervisor and contractor.

Keywords: Awareness, Building, Construction safety, Safety measures, Workers.

1. Introduction

Across the world safety is a major issue in construction industries. The important characteristics of
each project are concluded cost, time, quality and safety. The reasons construction is risky and prone
to health and safety risks are because of the physical environment of the work, nature of the
construction work operations, construction methods, construction materials, heavy equipment used,
and physical properties of the construction project itself, mentioned by Laryea et al. [1]. It has become
the order of the day because of construction of new structures and upgrading or reforming the existing
structure. Hence the safety in construction should be highlighted and no longer be ignored.
Construction is the most dangerous land based work sector across the world. In the construction sector,
there were 1,225 fatal injuries in 2001 with an incidence rate of 13.3 per 1, 00,000 employed workers
in the United States [2]. In Italy and Germany the construction fatality rates were 114.4 and 115.4 [3]
per annum per 1, 00,000 workers respectively in 1996. According to the International Labour
Organization (ILO) at least 60,000 people are killed every year on construction sites. That's around
one death every 10 minutes. The industry accounts for almost one in 5 of all fatal workplace accidents
[4]. According to safety and rights society, a right organization, a total of 97 people were killed at
construction sites during January to June, 2011 in Bangladesh [5]. So the purpose of this study is to

1
Lecturer, Department of Building Engineering & Construction Management, Khulna University of Engineering
& Technology, Khulna-9203, Bangladesh, email:hamidcekuet@gmail.com
2
Student, Department of Civil Engineering, Khulna University of Engineering & Technology, Khulna-9203,
Bangladesh, email:yadmorshed@gmail.com
3
Student, Department of Civil Engineering, Khulna University of Engineering & Technology, Khulna-9203,
Bangladesh, email:iamreza93@gmail.com

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evaluate the number of persons whether follow construction safety or not, to find out the degree of
safety adoption and endorse how the safety rules can be implemented in construction practice.

2. Methodology

This study was performed using a questionnaire that was developed based on safety criteria. The
questionnaires are divided into two parts. The first part consists the general information about the
construction site (i.e. site location, construction type, ownership, number of workers and their
approximate age). The second part of the questionnaires contains the data about the safety adoption
and working environment. In this research emphasis was paid on the second part of the questionnaires.
Overall survey strategy has been presented in the following flow chart.

General information
a. site location
b. constrction type
Survey Strategy

c. ownership Site safety


d. number of workers a. fall protection
e. age of workers b. scaffolding
f. supervisition c. fire protection

Study of safety adoption

Fig. 1. Flow chart of survey works chart of survey works

2.1. Study area


This study was performed at three selected area KUET (Khulna University of Engineering and
Technology), Mirerdanga and Teliganti. These areas are located in Khulna division at Khan Jahan Ali
thana. According to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) census 2011 about 5522, 8361 and 5456
people live in Mirerdanga,Teliganti and KUET respectively. The areas are located at the heart of town
and day by day becoming busiest place of this territory. Construction of new buildings, infrastructure,
modification and vertical and horizontal extension of the existing structures have become the regular
phenomenon.

2.2. Data collection


Because of large number of population which is scatter over the country a sample survey was
performed. A sample in construction site was casually selected from both public and private
construction projects at KUET, Teliganti and Mirerdanga in Khulna district of Bangladesh. The data
was collected by interviewing people in the site, making questionnaires, talking with workers
employed in the site and the owner, contractor and supervisor (if any) which was considered as

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primary data source. From publications and articles available in libraries; relevant documents from
government branches; the news media; and the internet secondary data was collected.

3. Results and Discussion

The findings of this study are presented in the table-1 as show in below. Each of the safety branch is
categorized as poor, good, better and best based on safety adopted by the employee and the working
environment. Safety category is remarks as ‘No’ if no safety measure was taken in this regard.
Analyzing the information obtained from the survey it was found that the safety practice in this study
is very insufficient and disappointing. Most of the site do not have any safety protection. If any, they
are very insufficient to safe the worker for hazards. The dangerous matter that none of them have any
protective measure in case of sudden fire. They also have no protection of their eyes from dust. But 94%
of the site were found where workers and other staffs protect their feet by using footwear. Even these
footwear are not sufficient enough compared to that they were supposed to wear during work time.
From fig. 2 it is noticeable that 94% and 72% of the study sites do not have any measures to protect
their hand and head respectively from hazards. Although the workers are being faced hazards in their
everyday works due to not using any protective tools. It was also found that 50% of workers and staff
used face protection is this study area and 67% of sites were not provided any scaffolding. Moreover
33% have scaffolding but they are made of traditional method with bamboo and rope.

Table-1. Degree of safety adoption in different categories

Protection of
Project Project Number of
Scaffolding Head Foot Hand Eye Face Fall Fire
name location workers
Project 1 Mirerdanga 8 Poor No Poor No No No No No
Project 2 Mirerdanga 12 No No Poor No No Better No No
Project 3 Mirerdanga 10 No No Poor No No No No No
Project 4 Mirerdanga 13 Better No Poor No No No No No
Project 5 Mirerdanga 11 No Poor Better No No Better No No
Project 6 Mirerdanga 15 Poor No Poor No No No No No
Project 7 Teliganti 5 No No Poor No No No No No
Project 8 Teliganti 9 No No Poor No No No No No
Project 9 Teliganti 8 No No Poor No No No No No
Project 10 Teliganti 13 Poor Poor Poor No No Poor No No
Project 11 Teliganti 6 No No No No No No No No
Project 12 KUET 24 No Poor Poor No No Poor No No
Project 13 KUET 8 Better No Better No No Poor No No
Project 14 KUET 20 No Better Best Poor No Good No No
Project 15 KUET 19 No No Good No No Poor No No
Project 16 KUET 15 No No Poor No No Poor No No
Project 17 KUET 14 Good Good Poor No No Poor No No
Project 18 KUET 15 No No Better No No No Poor No

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120
100 100 Scaffoldin
100 94 94 g
Head
Percent not Practicing

80 Foot
72
67
Protection

Hand
60 Eye
50
Face
40
Fall
20
6
0
Types of Protection

Fig. 2. Overall safety conditions of study area

Form the field experience most of the workers do not know what kind of safety measures should be
taken during working construction site. They also don’t know who are supposed to supply the safety
equipment’s to them. Moreover most of the project were not supervised by an efficient supervisor and
many of them were found that the projects were not planned by engineers. The workers are not aware
of their health and safety. Moreover poverty makes them bound to work in risky and unsafe
environment. The main problems associated with not practicing safety rules in this area are lake of
awareness, unemployment, poverty and most importantly irregular monitoring local development
authority.

4. Conclusions

Dodo [6] reported Health and Safety is an inevitable aspect of construction because a worker will
perform his/her duties to the fullest only when he/she is sure that even when an accident occurs he/she
will be good taken care of. Okeola [7] asserts that Health and Safety in construction is all about
preventing people from been killed or injured at work or becoming ill through appropriate precaution
and providing a satisfactory working environment. In this research a field survey was conducted with
18 projects. The data was collected through a questionnaires and from literature review. Through this
study it was founded about 85% of the workers did not adopt any safety measures and rest 15% adopt
very poor safety and thus the overall safety practices is very poor. To implement the safety rules
successfully, first of all good working environment would be created and poverty should be removed.
Safety awareness among the workers, owners, supervisor, and contractor should be enhance. The
regional development authority must be concern about regulation and implementation of the safety
rules noted in Bangladesh National Building Code (BNBC).

5. Acknowledgement

Cordial thanks to all building owners and workers who gave the valuable information at the
construction sites.

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6. References

[1] Laryea, S. and Mensah, S., Health and safety on construction sites in Ghana, in The
Construction, Building and Real Estate Research Conference of the Royal Institution of
Chartered Surveyors (COBRA 2010), 2010.
[2] BLS. 2002 Census of fatal occupational injuries. Fatal injuries. Washington, DC: U.S.
Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Safety and Health Statistics Program.
[3] Electronic Library of Construction Occupational Safety and Health (eLCOSH.org),
http://www.elcosh.org/en/index.php?module=Search&search_query=+review%3A+Constructio
n+Related+Fatality+Statistics#, (4 July 2015). www.elcosh.org.
[4] International Labour Organization,
http://www.ilo.org/global/About_the_ILO/Media_and_public_information/Press_releases/lang-
-en/WCMS_005161/index.html, (24 June 2015). www.ilo.org.
[5] Safety rules defied in construction sites, Safety and Rights Society (SRS),
http://www.safetyandrights.org/component/content/article/44-about/47-
constructiondailystarreport.html, (4 July 2015). www.safetyandrights.org.
[6] Dodo, M., The application of health and safety plan in nigerian constriction Firms, in Jordan
Journal of Civil Engineering, Volume 8, No.1, 2014.
[7] Okeola, O. G., Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Assessment in Construction Industry.
1st Annual Civil Engineering Conference, University of Ilorin, Nigeria, 2009.

IICSD-2015

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