Lagos State government through the Special Committee on Rehabilitation of Public Schools (SCRPS) has pledged to enforce compliance of safety measures in construction sites.
The SCRPS chairman, Hakeem Smith disclosed this during a sensitisation workshop on safety precautions and adherence at construction sites, organised by the Lagos State Safety Commission in collaboration with SCRPS for contractors and staff members.
Smith noted that safety training is a necessity for everyone working on a construction site because activities happening on sites are quite intense.
“If not properly handled, it may lead to accidents and when accidents happen, they could have cost implications, which may be minor or could lead to death.
“Safety training, particularly for construction workers, consultants and experts, is very important so that we can work very well in an environment that is complyiny to all safety rules and standards.
“So, it is apt that we are having this now. We have been doing some projects in the past, when you get to the site, you’ll see that some contractors don’t comply with basic safety precautions.
“Moving forward, we’ll enforce it. That is why we want to have this training so that henceforth, people will comply with safety precautions,” he said. The SCRPS boss stressed that going forward, the agency will ensure that penalties are meted out for non compliance.
“We have the right to tell a worker that he is not properly kitted, order him to leave the site and even stop such contractors from working for us.
“What that means is that contractors and facilitators will ensure that their workers are properly kitted and comply with safety rules,” he said.
Stressing further, Smith said in many of the projects delivered in the past, they have a few hitches and accidents, which are not severe because the measures were in place.
“Moving forward, we want to be more conscious and make sure that there is compliance. Site setup is very important. If your work environment is not properly laid out, you may have some of these issues, even a nail could injure someone if you are not putting on proper boots, that is why you need a first aid box on site.
“There is a way you set up your site such that you ensure that the site is well laid out, instead of just scattering everything. You go to some sites and everything is scattered.”
We don’t want that, we want a well laid out site,” he stated.
On the rehabilitation of the Tolu Schools’ complex in Ajegunle, he said the agency is excited because of the size of the education community, where there are about 31 secondary schools and five primary schools with a total capacity of about 20,000 students, which is unprecedented in all of west Africa.
In his remarks, Director General/Chief Executive Officer, Lagos State Safety Commission, Mr Lanre Mojola, emphasised the need for safety at construction sites to save lives and property, especially in school environments.
Mojola, who was represented by Director, Audit 1 Construction and Manufacturing Sector in the commission, Mrs Victoria Debite, urged contractors to take responsibility for identifying hazards and mitigating it during construction.
Also, one of the facilitators and retired director in Lagos State Safety Commission, Mr Adeniyi Adeyinka noted that more than 80 per cent of recorded accidents and disasters are caused by human errors and are prevalent in the construction sectors. He urged contractors to engage services of safety professionals in their sites to educate their workers to safe lives and property.
Source: TheGuardian
