Accidents on roads under construction: Our failure to enforce OSH and social safeguards

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By Frank Mugabi

In the years between 2015 to 2018, the World Bank halted funding to road construction works in different parts of the country, alarmed by, among others, the absence of social safeguards to ensure that people’s lives weren’t harmed by the civil works. There were rampant reports of sexual abuse at the hands of the road workers, and also environmental degradation concerns.

The Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, and other partners, had to develop new Environmental and Social Safeguard protocols for all Government civil works before the funding suspension got lifted.

The essence of these regulations is to ensure that while the road works are a welcome development (we all love the tarmac), they shouldn’t be at the cost of lives of the vulnerable and the environment.

Nevertheless, we seem to have learned nothing as a country. Road construction sites across the country are still prone to the same issues we thought we would tame through regulation. Contractors barely put up warning signs at construction sites (even when barricades are suddenly placed at danger spots), the dust is a constant on our roads under construction even though the regulations demand that this is managed through regular sprinkling, and roadworkers consider it “fun” to make sexual advances towards underage girls and women in local areas.

We were in Kyankwanzi in March this year for the International Women’s Day celebrations and the contractor literally had to be begged to water the road to keep the dust away with the increased traffic. I was left wondering what happens on other days, and how the dust is affecting residents in the area. Where do they run to for redress? But should it even require them to seek such action? With the regulations in place, the contractor should know it’s their express mandate to keep the dust down (and I’m informed this is costed in the Bill of Quanities).

The warning signs should never be negotiated. Be it for a hump, dug up section, speed limit, diversion, slippery ground, etc. Actually, the regulations don’t only call for signs but clearly readable and visible signs both day and night, and this should be at a fair distance from the danger point.

I have also witnessed children struggle to cross dusty and wide roads under construction with water collecting containers. They are many times forced to wait to no end on one side of the road as they watch for moving traffic. Laden with the weight of water, they stretch their young legs to the limit to run across the road with a window of reduced traffic. Only considerate drivers will stop and protect them to crossover.  This is a disruption of key social settings that ought to have been considered in the project design, and therefore mitigation measures put in place to allow residents pick their water without risks from oncoming traffic.

As for the sexual advances, the school-going girls are usually the target, irrespective of the fact that majority are underage. Again, the contractor is required to tame his workers against such vices. A girl impregnated midway her studies creates a host of social issues beyond the possibility of never returning to class. The dangers of childbirth become a reality, and there is a new cost of maintaining the newborn and mother that someone has to shoulder (many times the roadworker flees and the burden is left to the girl’s family).

We can’t continue with old habits with new regulations in place. The environmental and social safeguards should be enforced for all government projects with a keen eye from the responsible Ministries, Departments and Agencies. This will enable us to celebrate the commissioning of these of these projects without bad memories to carry.

Over to you Ministry of Works and Transport.

The writer is the Head Communication - National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO)