A new era of social distancing and washing hands has created a never before like challenge in the construction industry. Forget about the high-tech words like social distancing, maintaining personal cleanliness is unknown to the labor class in India.
A labour camp in India: Image Courtesy Indian Express
THE LABOR CLEANLINESS CHALLENGE
Primary challenge in any construction site in India is to stop the workers from spitting all around. Also the labor camps may not be adequately fitted with proper sanitary means and they are very much used to this situation. Labor class is often blamed of not knowing of using the washrooms properly and keeping them sanitized. Educating this group about the importance of cleanliness and changing their basic habits is going to be a herculean task.
MAINTAINING SITE CLEANLINESS
This is another area where our sites need drastic improvement. The potholes and mounds which becomes the collection centers of waste and monsoon water seems to be inevitable. The lift pit which becomes the solid waste management pit till the commission of the lift starts, is a usual sight in every site. Maintaining site cleanliness was and is going to be a great challenge in this post covid world.
SITE SANITIZING
Sanitizing the sites on daily basis is a new task to be included in the daily work breakdown. Standards on how to, where to, what to use etc needs to be decided by the authorities.
TECHNICAL SUPERIORITY
Achieving technical superiority by introducing digital systems in offices and sites may seem to be less challenging compared to the above, but it comes with a cost. Cameras with 360 degree site view, facilities for online conferences, software for decision making, digital drawings, digitization of office and site etc are easily available techniques but surprisingly rarely used in the context of site management. So this is the right time to do it.
STANDARD OPERATION PROCEDURE
Handling pandemics at site needs to be seriously viewed by authorities and necessary actions taken by introducing standard operation procedures or even an " IS code for handling epidemics ", for many reasons
Labors and working force work for the progress of the nation and their well being needs to be ensured.
Limitations of maintaining social distancing at site needs no mention and hence alternate means to avoid spread of disease needs to be standardized.
The speed of construction should not be affected by these procedures as this is very important for economically completing the project.
Comentarios