Assessment of Occupational Safety Practice of Building Construction Sites: A Case from Bharatpur Municipality, Nepal

Abstract

Occupational safety is a challenging issue in construction industry all around the world. It is even more of a challenge in a developing country like Nepal, where construction industry is growing so much that the safety aspect is usually overlooked. Also, the different nature of construction, such as tunnel construction, high-rise buildings, roads, bridges etc. add to the complexity of construction industry and hence the challenge of maintaining safety as different job have different safety problems. So the research was scoped to study about safety status in building construction sites and also and to assess the ways to improve safety practices. For the study purpose, a field observation was carried out at two building construction sites in Bharatpur Municipality. Data about use of PPE as safety practice was collected using a checklist survey and the analysis showed that the practice was not satisfactory in the observed sites. A questionnaire survey was carried out to identify the likelihood and consequences of different risks that could occur in building projects and risk level rating was assigned to the risks identified. Falling from height and electric shocks were assigned top two ratings. Questionnaire survey was then carried out to explore the ways that could improve the safety practices at a construction site. Safety brief before start of work each day on work site, regular training & awareness related to health & safety to workers and compulsory use of PPE on construction site were identified as best three ways.