Assessment of Risk and Safety Management on Building Construction Project in Case of Jimma

Abstract

Health and safety risky issues have always been a major problem and concern in the Construction industry. Due to its nature and complexity of the work and relatively labour intensive environment, construction works provide opportunities for occupation for a wide range of people skilled, semiskilled and unskilled. Wherever reliable records are available, construction is found to be one of the most dangerous on health and safety criteria, particularly in developing countries. However, knowledge on how health and safety risks are managed in Ethiopia construction sites is limited. This study therefore, aims to find out the current practice of health and safety risk assessment on building construction site in Ethiopia context specifically in Jimma town. The study was based on individual judgement, educational background, existing journals and available regulation. Questionnaires were designed and distributed to potential construction industry players, interview sessions and site observation have been conducted to meet the objective of the study. In addition, structured interviews were carried out with selected managers, daily workers and site engineers from a selection of government construction site. Descriptive analysis was used to summarize and interpret the data by using MS-excel and SPSS software. Accordingly, the findings indicate that the most frequent factors of hazards on building construction project ranked as: inadequate site access, labor dispute, insufficiency equipment availability and lack of awareness. On the other hand, falling from height, foot and hand injuries, manual handling, bending and twisting and falling objects observed to be the most critical hazards on building construction project were identified from the finding. The study recommended that the government Procurement systems should be evaluated in terms of their impact on safety and health prior to their selection for projects. Contractors should not be placed on tender lists unless they can show competence in the management of safety and health.