Rod Stewart, Managing Director of Atkins Qatar, delivering a lecture on ‘Raising the Bar for Health and Safety for Construction in Qatar’ at InterContinental Hotel Doha yesterday. Kammutty V P
DOHA: Promoting and enhancing ‘pan-industry collaborative approach’ is one of the most important ways to raising the bar for health and safety standards in Qatar’s construction industry, says a top industry official.
“There is a need to adopt a very collaborative approach to raise safety standards which starts with our clients who value and have some standards when they procure designers and contractors. And I believe that as a contractor we also need to think very hard how our job gets done to communicate about the different kinds of risks and hazards to builders to ensure that they understand what the risks are,” said Rod Stewart, Managing Director of Atkins, a leading consultancy.
Speaking at the ‘Distinguished Speaker Series’ organised by the American Chamber of Commerce in Qatar (AmCham Qatar), Steward said: “There is an appetite within Qatar to create a genuine health and safety culture, where international best practice is the norm.
“Important strides are being made and we are moving towards the kind of collaborative, pan-industry approach which will drive real and lasting change.”
He also said there is a need to educate the workforce and provide a certain degree of training that allows them to think for themselves.
“They need to be aware of health and safety hazards and take personal responsibility. It is quite a complex thing, but with the right kind of leadership we can move in the positive direction,” he said.
Steward highlighted that a lot of workforce here come from the relatively low-paid part of the economy, and to put responsibility on them is the biggest challenge.
“Behavioural safety is one of the most sophisticated approaches making each individual to feel that lives of their friends and colleagues are precious.”
He said that companies in the construction sector must strive to make safety part of their organisational culture and empower all staff to put safety first.
He cited traffic management, introduction of international standards and implementation of a mechanism allowing employees to challenge any aspect of the design as specific examples for improving safety.
Atkins is a major design, engineering and project management consultancy employing more than 500 people in Qatar.
It has worked in partnership with Ashghal, the Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning and other government entities on key infrastructure projects, including the Dukhan-Doha Highway and Doha Metro.
The Peninsula
