Dubai Municipality’s Building Department has issued a safety manual for construction works.

It outlines general and specific safety procedures for all types of construction and demolition works and associated jobs.

Essa Al Maidour, assistant director general of Dubai Municipality for Planning and Building Affairs, said the issuance of this manual stems from the great concern placed by the municipality for safety issues and the need to introduce future standards for the same.

’This manual includes a set of rules that will help construction firms adopt the best practices in ensuing safety at construction sites. It can be used as a reference for regulating the working conditions in construction projects for all employees who work with contractors or sub-contractors,’ he said.

Al Maidour also said that the new safety manual forms part of the set of legislation currently being undertaken by Dubai Municipality with the objective of introducing a complete legal framework in line with the municipality’s Strategic Plan 2007-2011.

This will result in producing a set of the most important legislation documents for the emirate.

’As we face unprecedented and difficult challenges in offering the best infrastructure for a world-class city like Dubai, the issuance of such a manual is all the more relevant.

’In designing this manual, many of the safety standards existing in the advanced and developing nations were referred to,’ Al Maidour added.

Fawzi Mohammed Al Shehi, acting director of the Building Department, said the manual includes a set of rules which regulate construction projects carried out in the Emirate of Dubai.

He said that according to available statistics for the past four years, of the total number of accidents at construction sites, a considerable percentage of accidents have occurred due to negligence of safety practices.

For instance, falling from heights constituted 45 per cent of the total 865 accidents that occurred during the period from 2004 until 2007.

Other types of accidents were collapses at work sites (23 per cent), accidents involving cranes and other machinery (14 per cent) and fire and electric shock (7 per cent).

In 2007 alone, there were 249 accidents in which 47.8 per cent were falling from heights. Taking this into consideration, the manual stipulates in at lease four chapters stringent safety measures for preventing such accidents.

The manual also lays down stricter fire safety preconditions in the wake of an increased rate of fire accidents at projects under construction.

In this regard, the consultants and contractors have to give top priority for early installation of the permanent fire prevention devices and arranging water tanks and water pumps at construction sites to put off fire and sources of alternative energy.

This is applicable even if the building is complete and ready for occupation. - TradeArabia News Service