FACTORY CONDITIONS BANGLADESH
factory building regulations were issued in 1976, after the end of the Bangladesh Liberation War in December 1971. These regulations have never been updated. ‘The country was very new and young,
and didn’t know how to deal with this factory culture. Nobody knew that it could become something really big,’ says Naz, who analysed the thermal environment at a garment factory in Dhaka for her Master’s dissertation at the Architectural Association. There are currently 8,000 garment factories in Bangladesh, with 800 crammed into Dhaka city. A ccording to the British Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce, 1,000 more are to be built by 2015 – a rate of 38 factories a month. ‘Factories are very positive for the country,
and closing them is not going to help ,’ says Naz. ‘What we need to do is create more liveable conditions, so when you go to
Primark and buy a £2 T-shirt, somebody’s life isn’t being diminished for it.’ A typical Bangladeshi factory has raw materials entering on the top fl oor, with cutting and preparation on the fl oor directly below . The sewing and ironing fl oors come next ; and the quality and light-check area is underneath these. The garments are packaged and shipped on the ground fl oor. Naz, who monitored a Dhaka factory
in 2007, says overheating was an issue in the sewing and ironing areas. The sewing- space temperature varied between 26°C and 39°C (see Figure 1), but the highest temperature Naz recorded on the ironing fl oor was 40°C, caused by intense lighting, the steam emanating from huge hovercraft- like ironing machines and the workers’ body heat.
Bangladesh has a high -moisture climate and, in the peak of summer, the relative
www.cibsejournal.com
March 2014 CIBSE Journal 49
BLOOMBERG / GETTY IMAGES
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80