--
“When you take in consideration all the possible
chances of any mishap happening at the site & make safety arrangements to
avoid it accordingly in the right way & yet something bad happens &
someone loses his or her life, that is what I call an accident”… Me.
Friends, the above
quote is not actually a quote but it’s sharing a thought process as you can
easily imagine it’s about site accidents & to avoid them or to learn from
them! And I just thought of these words in a brainstorming session of our
fact-finding committee formed to analyze reasons for a recent accident at one
site in Pune. Adhering to the outcome of this sharing as here will try to use
this case study building a system which will be workable & will help to
reduce ( I am not saying stop) the accidents at the sites!
As first &
foremost we must understand that civil Eng works are still carried out in our
country mainly by humans as labor force is cheaper in this country
(unfortunately, so is life too) & that too most of them are in this
trade just because they have nothing else to do & finds it easier for their
survival & not by choice! So, to train them is a big challenge as barring a
few institutes there are not many schools of colleges which will give formal
training of these trades such as tiling, masonry, plumbing, carpentry, or steel
reinforcement & many such. This makes educating these laborers on the
safety front more tough as most of them are illiterate & are used to doing
the work in their traditional way which doesn’t include safety as training! Then
comes the supervisory part, being a civil Eng by myself, I vouch till lately,
safety wasn’t a subject which they teach you in Eng colleges in depth (rather
even on surface too) & no wonder in construction industry (not just real
estate) a good civil engineer also not that good in maintaining safety at site
is a fact! The main reason behind most accidents at construction projects is,
safety was never considered as a quality aspect of any structure’s building
process right from teaching civil engineering & this aspect we must keep in
mind in achieving safety at sites!
For the contractors (I
am referring to all trades) just to get a contract if you are missing safety
from your expenditure then you are making a big mistake as one accident can
wipe not just your profit from that work but all your earnings, please keep this
thing in mind while quoting for any contract. As well do check & sign term
sheet or tender or work order with your sub-contractors with proper safety
clauses & follow them.
Lastly for the owner
or builder (I am restricting to real estate) , your neck is the first in the
line when any accident happens & more than this, I don’t want to comment
anything about the developer's approach towards safety at the site!
Coming back to the
subject, let's first list the probable stages of a construction site where
accidents can happen & then only, we can make arrangements to avoid them,
right?
1.While you buy the plot
Many times we think
how an empty plot can cause harm but that depends on geography, topography as
well geology of that plot. Study carefully, all these aspects of the plot, make
documentation of the condition of the plot while you buy it even before building
a compound wall as well what activities are happening in the neighborhood of
the plot as all these things matter. Such as natural water source of path from
or near by your plot, slopes where landslides can happen or water-logged areas
or deeps as all these things can be the reason of accident even when the plot
is empty & you make labor camps here.
2.Labour Camps
Most neglected &
susceptible location for accident, right from its location to arrangement to
material used for making it everything matters.
3.Boundary Walls
Making a boundary wall
can be a costly affair depending on plot size as well soil strata but if you
try to save on money in building the boundary wall it can cost you a fortune,
so do it only under structural consultants advice as even if you spend money in
making it fancy it must be durable also!
4. Excavation for foundation or basement
Maximum accidents
happen during this phase & when we have to build thirty / forty storied
buildings we need to dig deep in earth also & there is where the problem
starts. Utmost care must be taken when you excavate your plot as it's not just
safety or people working but adjoing properties also needs to be taken care in
while you dig deep into your plot. At the same time dewatering is there if
groundwater is high. Main issue is, most of western Maharashtra has black
cotton soil as top earth cover & is very tricky in physical behavior; when
it comes in contact with water it shrinks & expands when it gets dried,
thus it physically flows, causing maximum accidents! As well flooding in rains
also can be a matter of concern when you dig. And in case of redevelopment
projects there is demolishing of existing structures or even the time of some
bungalow also, these too are the stages of work where utmost care needed to be
taken to avoid accidents.
5.RCC / Masonry/ Plaster
Here two fronts one
must check, one is accidents during shuttering for slab work or casting &
second is accidents while scaffolding work for masonry & plaster from
outside. And as the structure goes up high then the service ducts openings at
every slab level also are danger spots such as lift ducts, electric main’s duct
& many such.
6.Facade & Elevation Works
With the craze of
fancy elevations as well as glazing for commercial buildings, we have to make
separate treatments to the entire height from outside & is a risky affair
when a building is multistoried. This also needs to be taken in consideration
while painting from outside as a few years back in Mumbai, entire scaffolding
collapsed while painting from outside claiming nearly fifteen plus lives of the
painters which were working on that scaffolding.
7.Finishing Items
Though as by this
stage most of the activities are complete yet fire & electric short-circuit
are two main causes which can be the reason of accidents in such things, such
as tiling or interiors of the lobbies etc. As well falling down due to slippery
floor surfaces also is one cause of the accident in the finishing stages. Even
waterproofing of water tanks overhead or underground are risky affairs.
8.Site Equipments & Services
Construction equipment
such as tower cranes, work-lifts are main reasons in construction stage
accidents which must be kept under good & routine maintenance. As well in
the finishing stage, building’s lifts, escalators , generators , transformers &
such types of services need to be looked after carefully to avoid accidents.
Even the movable machinery such as fork-lifts or Dumpers or water tankers or
concrete mixers must be allowed to operate to only the trained hands to avoid
accidents because of their wrong movements.
9.Children of Site Labor’s
Most vulnerable to
accidents as usually they tend to follow their parents even to work areas.
10.Surrounding Neighborhood
These are more at risk
because they are not site familiar & it’s us who must think for their
safety. As well, clients & outsiders visiting the site also needed to be
looked after from a safety angle.
Now, we can make
pointwise do’s & don’ts to ensure safety at all above stages yet as I said
at start there can be something all together different than these & cause a
mishap but that will be an accident & next time we must cover that possibility
also in our safety measures, that is learning from the accident!
Last but least, the governing public bodies as well investigation
agencies like Police also must have a proper system to handle a site accident
& rather than reacting to the incident & media pressure & taking
face saving actions, must take a realistic & practical stand!
--
Sanjay
Deshpande
Sanjeevani Dev.
Please view my sharing about finding a Right
Home/ Office in Pune, at YouTube link below & share if liked..
https://youtu.be/27j3I3rwGPQ?si=-ODYBxVI2Dl_C345
Please do visit my blog links
below to read about real estate & home buying!
https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2023/01/defining-good-home-real-estate-in-2023.html
http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/2023/02/blog-post.html
Creating Togetherness; team Sanjeevani Way (Click link below)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/albums/72157627904681345
For any of your complaints about city, log in at link below
www.punecorporation.org
Take your issues to Hon PM at link below..
Think Green, Think Life
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