Environmental,Health and Safety Report 2004 / 05

Safety

Safety in Our Estates

One of the major tasks in achieving sustainable housing is to provide a safe living environment and surroundings for our public rental housing (PRH) tenants. To protect the daily life of our tenants, we have been implementing various measures in the past years, ranging from safe building design to adding new safety measures in estate management.

Safe Building Design

Besides ensuring compliance with laws and regulations, we aim to go beyond statutory requirements and achieve a higher building safety standard. During the design stage, we aim to identify safety issues related to the whole process from construction to subsequent use and maintenance of our PRH blocks. One of our initiatives is to adopt practicable principles from UK's Construction Design and Management (CDM) Regulations in our project design. By addressing safety issues in the early design stage, risks affecting safety and health can be better managed, reduced or even avoided. Design guidelines on practising these principles have been issued and we continue to seek improvement.

Photo: Digital Falling Object Monitoring System and CCTV System

Photo: Estate Fire Safety Family Day Camp; Kick off ceremony of the Estate Fire safety campaign; Estate Fire Safety Education Path; road show, etc.

Measures Against Falling Objects

We have employed a team of security guards formed by ex-Police to patrol round-the-clock at strategic locations to detect and gather evidence on tenants who throw objects from heights. In addition, Digital Falling Object Monitoring Systems and Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) Systems have been installed at strategic locations to support the patrols. These initiatives have proved to be effective. By the end of March 2005, we identified a total of 41 households from which objects were thrown. Under the existing Marking Scheme for Tenancy Enforcement, seven points were allotted to those residents.

The allotment of penalty points is under review with an aim to relate the objects thrown down with the seriousness of the misdeed. Objects thrown from height would be classified into those that would “jeopardize environmental hygiene” and “cause danger or personal injury”. More penalty points will be allotted for the latter. We wish to imprint upon the public that unscrupulous acts of throwing objects from heights that may cause danger or personal injury will not be tolerated.

Promotion of Awareness on Fire Safety

“Parents and Children Join Hands in Estate Fire Prevention” was the slogan of the annual Estate Fire Safety Campaign in 2004/05. A series of fire safety awareness programmes was rolled out following the kick-off ceremony in November 2004.

One major event was the Estate Fire Safety Family Day Camp at the Fire Services Training School in Pat Heung, with 75 primary school students and parents from 25 families receiving intensive fire safety training. These “Estate Fire Safety Families” were then committed to help spread the message among peers and friends.

We continued to promote fire safety awareness through radio segments, organizing the Estate Fire Safety Ambassador Scheme, Estate Fire Safety Education Paths, roadshows and training programmes. To widely disseminate the relevant information, we planned to set up a web-based resource centre on estate fire safety on the HA website. Calendar cards carrying fire safety messages were also distributed to every domestic household to alert them on fire hazards.

Occupational Safety in Construction and Estate Management

Statistics in 2004

The total number of accidents in our new works and maintenance works contracts has steadily dropped in recent years. Last year we had a total of 160 accidents, compared with 255 accidents in 2003, 390 accidents in 2002 and 875 in 2001. Causes of accident for new works and maintenance works are shown below.

Chart: Accidents at New Works by Category

This downward trend is most evident in the accident rate per 1 000 site workers for new works. The accident rate per 1 000 construction workers on Housing Authority (HA) sites declined from 37.8 in 2002 to 32.8 in 2003, and further to 29.2 in 2004. This is far below that recorded by the Hong Kong construction industry (60.3 in 2004). [Source: Occupational Safety and Health Council – 2004 Statistics]

Unfortunately, there was one fatality among all HA contracts in 2004, and actions against the contractors concerned were carried out in accordance with our sanction measures regarding contractors’ performance.

Chart: Accidents at Maintenance Works by Category

Chart: Accident Rate at Housing Authority Construction Sites

	Safety Culture and Systems in Construction Sites We have continued to enhance the safety culture in construction sites through implementing tender contractual controls, conducting regular audits, providing guidelines and promoting experience-sharing among industry partners. In 2004, we undertook quarterly safety audits under the Housing Authority Safety Audit Scheme for over 30 construction contracts. Contractor performance was assessed and scored by independent safety auditors. The audit results serve as a critical consideration leading to suspension from tendering as a disciplinary measure.
	We also promoted best practices to enhance the safety culture at construction sites. In 2004/05, the Safe Working Cycle was introduced as a mandatory requirement while the Guidelines on Hard Paved Construction were issued to minimize dust generation and reduce material damage and contamination during transportation. We have continued to promote staff and contractor awareness on site safety through conducting training courses, toolbox talks, seminars and awareness promotion events, such as safety campaigns. The concerted efforts of our contractors and HA were recognized with a total of 14 awards won by HA contractors in the two major safety awards: the Construction Safety Award and Considerate Contractors Site Award in 2004 in Hong Kong.

Safety Culture and Systems in Construction Sites

We have continued to enhance the safety culture in construction sites through implementing tender contractual controls, conducting regular audits, providing guidelines and promoting experience-sharing among industry partners.

In 2004, we undertook quarterly safety audits under the Housing Authority Safety Audit Scheme for over 30 construction contracts. Contractor performance was assessed and scored by independent safety auditors. The audit results serve as a critical consideration leading to suspension from tendering as a disciplinary measure.

Photo: The Construction Industry Safety Award presentation ceremony

We also promoted best practices to enhance the safety culture at construction sites. In 2004/05, the Safe Working Cycle was introduced as a mandatory requirement while the Guidelines on Hard Paved Construction were issued to minimize dust generation and reduce material damage and contamination during transportation.

We have continued to promote staff and contractor awareness on site safety through conducting training courses, toolbox talks, seminars and awareness promotion events, such as safety campaigns.

The concerted efforts of our contractors and HA were recognized with a total of 14 awards won by HA contractors in the two major safety awards: the Construction Safety Award and Considerate Contractors Site Award in 2004 in Hong Kong.