People paying with their lives in pursuit of quicker construction

Chinese rescuers search for victims and survivors in debris of a collapsed working platform in a cooling tower under construction at Fengcheng Power Plant in Yichun city, east China's Jiangxi province, 24 November 2016.[Photo/IC]

On Thursday, 74 workers died and another two were injured when a scaffolding platform inside a power plant cooling tower under construction in Fengcheng, East China's Jiangxi province, collapsed. The State Administration of Work Safety investigated the accident and found it was the result of the company accelerating the construction process unreasonably. That's a common problem on construction sites nationwide, says Beijing News:

Any building project needs proper preparatory work and care must be taken in every stage of construction, because any error might pose a challenge to the safety of workers or occupants.

It is quite common for domestic construction companies to try and shorten the construction time. Worse, some companies are even proud of finishing construction in a shorter period than planned. The power plant in Fengcheng where the accident happened was reported to have even held a meeting to encourage workers to show their 'fighting spirit" and speed up construction.

People pay with lives for such a "fighting spirit".

The shortening of the construction period has much to do with the companies' blind pursuit of profit. The earlier the building is put into use, the earlier the company can get its money back and start to make a profit.

Actually, the domestic construction quality control regulation says that companies shortening their construction period without sufficient reason face a fine of between 200,000 ($29,990) and 500,000 yuan. Yet seldom has such a fine been imposed.

The State Administration of Work Safety has already been investigating the Fengcheng accident and those responsible will face their deserved penalties soon. But it is time we strengthened our regulation over construction companies, so that they strictly follow the timeline for a construction project, because we cannot afford to risk people's lives.