Bangla Accord units complete only 2% remediation in 1 yr

05 Feb '20

2 min read

Pic: Shutterstock

Bangladesh readymade garment factories inspected under the initiative of European buyers and retailers registered only 2 per cent progress in safety hazard remediation work in the last one year, according to the latest report by the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, which said the units completed 91 per cent of the work as on January 1, 2020.

The figure was 89 per cent on January 1 last year.

The report said 273 factories finished the initial remediation works while more than 90 per cent of the works were completed at 1,173 factories and 1,101 factories remained behind schedule in the remediation work for safety hazards.

The platform terminated business relations with 167 factories as the units failed to make the desired progress in fixing life-threatening safety hazards on time.

The platform formed by North American brands and retailers, the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, which inspected around 700 factories earlier, has already left the country after completing its task.

Although the five-year timeframe of Accord had expired, it was allowed to continue operations in the country till May this year.

The Accord engineers conducted follow-up inspections to monitor the remediation work and verify that corrective actions had been completed as per plan. Each factory was inspected around once every four months, the report said.

Forty five per cent of the factories still lacked adequate fire detection and alarm systems while installation of fire suppression systems remained pending at 54 per cent of the units. There was a lack of design check against lateral load still at 13 per cent of the factories while inconsistency with building plan and drawings was found at 16 per cent of the factories, the Accord report added.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)

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