UK Group Warns About Lack of Building Standards

• 31 December 2015
• Association Focus
• 996 Views

The factory collapse that claimed over 1,100 lives in Bangladesh in April 2013 brought the issue of building quality and construction standards in developing countries to the world’s attention. During a recent visit to the Kingdom, a UK standards group urged Cambodia to enact strict standards itself to prevent deadly accidents.

The UK-based Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), one of the world’s leading groups for setting standards in the surveying industry, made a visit to Cambodia to urge the country to improve international building and safety standards. RICS officials met with the Cambodia Constructors Association (CCA) to emphasize how a lack of standards can lead to disaster.

In a talk on March 4, two experts from RICS pointed out the importance of standards, especially regarding the more than 800 garment factory buildings in the country where more than 600,000 work. The sector has already experienced several building collapses due to the lack of a national standard.

The May 16, 2013 collapse of a section of the Wing Star shoe factory, which killed two workers and injured more than ten, highlighted the shoddy construction standards all too prevalent in the country. Both RICS and the CCA believe a lack of standards, and the resulting sub-standard building practices, can undermine investor confidence in the long run.

The two groups also discussed the need for a reliable building inspection agency, the preparation of a building law to be introduced this year, and the wide variety of foreign standards currently used in Cambodia.

“Here constructors and building owners can apply any building standards they prefer since Cambodia doesn’t have its own standard,” said Martin Russell Croucher, RICS director. “But it is compulsory that Cambodia have its own standard because those standards being used may not fit well with Cambodian conditions.”

He also advised Cambodia to have a reliable building inspection regime approved by the government to ensure investor confidence in the industry. “Soon Cambodia will have a construction law and building standard, but we need somebody that checks whether projects are following the standards or not,” he added.

Neak Oknha Pung Kheav Se, CCA chairman, remarked that since there is no building standard yet, standards currently used are often those that local engineering students learn during their studies abroad as well as those most familiar to foreign project owners. He said that Cambodia’s experience with these differing standards could help it draw from the best practices of all of them to produce its own code that would be applicable to everyone.

He added that a request by garment factory group GMAC to the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction to check the quality of factory buildings and certify those passing the test had been approved.

The ministry is now working with relevant parties to complete the construction draft law this year, which will comply with the regional standard set by the ASEAN Constructors Federation (ACF), of which CCA is a member. Officials said the law would come into effect sometime within the government’s fifth mandate.

The ministry also approved the purchase of tools and equipment to use in construction quality testing within the next few years. CCA has expressed interest in investing in a laboratory to test the quality of building materials and construction projects. At present, this kind of testing is only carried out by a few private companies.