Health, safety and environment (HSE) culture in Bangladesh challenges and recommendation

Abstract

With rapid growth of national economy and strong social needs, energy has become an important strategic resource for national development. Although Bangladesh government is making great efforts to develop sustainable energy such as nuclear, coal mining, hydro power, wind and solar power etc, undoubtedly, petroleum and natural gas still dominate the national energy demands. Although technological improvements have reduced Petroleum and other industry related deaths, accidents are still too common. That’s why health, safety, and the environment culture remain among the top priorities for oil and gas industries, reflecting an attitude of zero tolerance for accidents. Petroleum (Drilling) activities can take place in diverse geological and geophysical settings, each posing unique type of challenges. However proper planning, hazard control, inspection, incident investigation and reporting can reduces the number of accidents approximately to zero. Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) should be the first priority in petroleum and mining industry for ensuring incident free operation with profitable growth in the business. Industry without practicing HSE (regulation) is very dangerous for personnel, equipment, material, property and environment. To ensure safety (incident free operation) regular inspection of project plant, rig site and necessary control measure should always be carried out by trained manpower, HSE personnel along with concerned special authorities to meet the demand of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standard and regulation (or OSH). Physical inspection, incident investigation and reporting, emergency planning, hazard identification, hazard control, Lockout/ Tag out (LOTO), Manual Materials Handling (MMH), hazard analysis, job safety analysis, risk analysis, stop work condition and authorities, training, employee orientation, tool safety, toolbox talk, are essential element for maintaining safety of industries. That’s why this paper about safety culture has prepared by working on all of those. Attitudes, personal education and experience, organizational training, communication mechanism and so on, all of them affect the development of a safety culture in any organization. The environment in which people work and the systems and processes in the industry also influence the safety culture. Therefore, each industry needs to consider all of these aspects in developing and nurturing a safety culture that suits the organization and the individuals within it. In any Petroleum project, concern authority need to maintain standard quality of implementation of the HSE programmed with due consideration to standing Safety rules and regulations. The project may be considered viable from the Health, Safety and Environmental point of view and therefore be considered for implementation by appropriate authorities. It has been recommended that, Health, Safety and Environmental clearance would be issued in favor of petroleum project for execution of the project as incident free operation in future. The research and conclusions and recommendations of this report could provide useful organizational safety culture concept to promote safety performance and safety management in Bangladesh.