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Abstract

The article presents findings of a study aimed at assessing the extent to which health and safety regulations (HSR) are adhered to at building construction sites in and around Gaborone, the capital city of Botswana. The study was motivated by the increasing levels of construction activity in Botswana, alongside some incidents of construction related accidents reported in the media. A structured questionnaire survey was used in the study. It was administered to 126 construction workers and seven government health and safety inspectors. The SPSS software was used to analyse data. The findings showed that, there is a low adherence to HSR at building construction sites, due to among others, inadequate training, inadequate safety plans, weak hazard prevention measures and lack of enforcement mechanisms. Regulatory authorities faced enforcement challenges such as inadequate staff, insufficient health and safety funds for inspection visits and lack of a cohesive health and safety policy. Despite the limitation of a small sample of surveyed construction sites, the study provided insights to the HSR phenomena in and around the city. The findings obliges policy makers to investigate the issue of increasing HSR inspectors while companies should increase and sustain training programmes that increase HSR awareness at construction sites.

Keywords

Health, Safety, Construction sites, Gaborone, Botswana

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