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Risking life and limb: all in a day's construction work
As Dubai grows at an alarming rate, those building the city's towers, hotels and offices regularly ignore safety rules throughout their shift, be it hanging out of cranes, not attaching safety harnesses or even deciding not to wear hard hats.
- By Mick O'Reilly, Deputy Managing Editor
- Published: 23:54 November 13, 2008
- Image Credit: Illustration: Guillermo Munro/Gulf News
Since moving to Dubai five months ago, one of my favourite pastimes has become construction watching. Every week you can see a new floor go up, new ground being broken, new buildings underway.
There are 3,000 towers planned for the city over the next five years, though given what's been happening lately to the financial and property markets, that time frame will most likely be extended by a couple of years.
Like most expatriates starting a new life in Dubai, I ended up in a brand-new high-rise apartment building, offering all of the latest amenities, pool and gym.
Right next door to my building in Al Barsha, a new budget hotel is being constructed. I never cease to be amazed by the sheer volume of hotel rooms being built for this city. Soon, it seems, there will be a concierge at every corner and a bellhop for every man, woman and child in the city.
I can literally look out from my eighth-floor balcony and see workers erect scaffolding, place forms, pour cement, then move onto the next floor as others begin laying bricks on the newly-completed sections. I feel like a real-life foreman on my own giant Lego set, the ultimate Bob the Builder, and I don't have to share my toy with anyone.
Across the street, another project is underway, though this has advanced more rapidly, glowing by 12 storeys since I took up residency.
Nadeem, the night security guard in my building assures me it has a 24-hour building permit. For the first several months, I would meet new neighbours in the elevator, inevitably asking the question if they had gotten used to the construction noise. Silly me: Their bleary-eyed looks and their grunts confirm no. Five months on, I have finally gotten used to the round-the-clock noise, dust, hammering and clattering, welding, banging, hammering, grinding and general din.
What I can't get used to, though, are the risks that workers take in putting up these towers.
High price to pay
There is a myriad of construction safety rules at the Federal, Municipal and Free Zone level, and enforcement has been increased and improved. I was in Bur Dubai recently and observed a job site there which seemed to be highly aware of safety regulations, being plastered with signs and notices, catchphrases and slogans urging greater safety, telling everyone to do their part.
And I think that's the important thing here: All of the safety rules and regulations can exist, but ultimately, it's up to workers to make sure they don't take needless risks, exacerbating dangerous situations. When I get in my car, I understand the rules and laws of driving. I'm not going to endanger myself or others by breaking those rules. The same life-and-death logic should apply on construction sites.
By the way, according to Gulf News researchers, 25 workers have died at construction sites in the UAE since October 2007. Some died in falls, others as forms collapsed, others as cranes toppled.
Scores more were seriously injured and maimed - high prices to pay for doing a day's work.
My wife and I sit most nights on our balcony, observing the workers in the adjacent site. And most nights, we are struck by the manner in which they work. In the past two weeks alone we have witnessed:
A crane operator hanging out of his cab to grapple with dangling chains from the boom. He nonchalantly leaned out over the open window frame, balanced his body weight precariously 10 storeys above ground as he defied gravity to pull in the weighty links;
A construction worker riding untethered on an open rebar basket from 100 feet down to ground level;
A worker using a grinder blade without gloves or safety glasses. The grinder spat out a spray of fiery sparks, covering others who were nearby;
Two labourers working precariously on a ledge fixing rebar on a partially-constructed form. Yes, they were wearing safety harnesses. No, the safety harnesses were not attached to anything. It's a long way down.
It's also interesting to note that there are two shifts and the differences are as clear as night and day. During the day shift, all of the workers wear hard hats. At night, few bother.
The day shift mostly wear orange overalls. At night, the workers mostly wear casual, loose clothes that could easily be caught up in machinery, protruding rebar, strewn lumber or half-completed forms.
Having hit my thumb on more than one occasion trying to hammer in a nail, I have a layman's knowledge of what's safe, what's dangerous, and what's risky. I also know when to apply common sense. What's needed on most building sites is a liberal dose of common sense. Education and simple preventive measures will go a long way toward improving safety records. So too will laws and enforcement. For all our sakes.
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