Most of the garment factories are located in rented buildings and they struggle to comply with the conditions of structural integrity and hazard preparedness to ensure safe workplace, analysts said yesterday.They spoke at a workshop titled “Improving earthquake risk reduction strategies in RMG industries”, organised by the Disaster and Development Organisation in the port city.Md Edris Alam, an associate professor of the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at Chittagong University and the honourary chief executive of the development organization, presented the keynote paper at the workshop.The garment factories located in rental buildings have to get approval from the plot owners to bring any structural change to the buildings, Alam said.It is unlikely to get go-ahead from the owners for such changes even if those strengthen the structure of the buildings, he said.The owners think the buildings would become useless when the garment units will leave the place, he said.On the other hand, most of such garment factories refrain from making ‘useless’ spending on such plots, which they would have to leave any time.Alam has conducted a survey on 178 garment factories recently.He found that most of the garment units located in rental buildings have stairs on two sides of the structure along with two exit gates, whereas they should have stairs in four sides and have four gates.Some factories attempted to increase the number of exit gates after the inspection by the National Tripartite Action Plan, but they failed, as the building owners did not give approval to bring changes to the structure, he said.Representatives from seven garment factories, Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association and Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defence took part in the event.Professor Mehedi Ahmed Ansary of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology was the main discussant while Chittagong Zila Parishad Chairman MA Salam was the chief guest at the event.
