Survivors of a lethal gasoline leak on the southern Jordanian port recount dire well being circumstances.
Aqaba, Jordan — Whereas workers on the Aqaba Ports Company (APC) have ended a seven-day strike following a lethal poisonous chlorine gasoline leak final week, lots of the survivors face a protracted convalescence and have recounted a litany of long-standing well being and security issues on the southern Jordanian port.
The leak occurred after a tank carrying 25 tonnes of chlorine gasoline fell whereas being transported on June 27, killing 13 individuals and injuring greater than 300.
Throughout a press convention on Sunday to announce the outcomes of an investigation into the incident, Jordan’s Inside Minister Mazen Faraya stated that the principle explanation for the leak was “an absence of conformity” of the cable to the burden of the cargo, inflicting the cable to snap – along with negligence and an absence of precautionary measures and experience in dealing with hazardous gadgets.
Jordan’s cupboard fired the director generals of the state-owned APC and Jordan Maritime Fee and different port officers over the incident, Faraya stated within the press convention.
On Monday, the APC Employees’ Union President Ahmad al-Amayreh instructed Jordan’s state media that the union had determined to finish the strike over well being and security circumstances after an understanding was reached with the newly appointed director common.
Mohammad Yousef al-Darawish, an worker of the APC for almost 30 years, was one of many eight individuals nonetheless receiving therapy in hospitals for publicity to the poisonous gasoline, as of Sunday. He instructed Al Jazeera he has by no means felt protected on the port.
“I’ve been employed [there] since 1995 and never as soon as did I've a security course,” he stated, additionally referencing the dearth of non-public protecting tools supplied for port staff.
“Thank God I'm alive, however there are some individuals, my colleagues, who're lifeless,” al-Darawish stated. “I noticed them with my very own eyes, very near me, lifeless … It was a catastrophe.”
Union chief al-Amayreh instructed Al Jazeera that the Aqaba port had skilled a protracted interval of “neglect over neglect”, and stated the latest gasoline leak was not the one incident to happen because of malpractice and an absence of adherence to security protocols.
Al-Amayreh referred to an incident final 12 months the place a steel pole fell and killed “one in every of our shut colleagues”. Since then, he stated, the union leaders had met usually and had submitted a number of complaints over security issues on the port, however “nothing occurred, nothing modified”.
Al-Amayreh stated the non-public protecting tools was “mainly ineffective”, there have been no security programs for the employees, and there have been “no strict orders to observe public security pointers”.
Now, below the latest settlement, further security measures shall be supplied on the port’s terminals and yards, in response to al-Amayreh.
Hamzeh al-Hajj Hassan, the Aqaba Particular Financial Zone Authority (ASEZA) deputy chief commissioner and likewise on the investigation committee, instructed Al Jazeera that the port incident was a results of “an issue with miscommunication, an issue with manpower who should not well-qualified, and positively an issue with security rules”.
Hassan famous that about 2,700 individuals are presently employed on the port, whereas solely 500 to 600 workers could be ample to hold out the work. He stated that extra staff led to a serious “manpower drawback”, which contributed to the failure to verify if the cable might help the chlorine container.
‘It felt like my eyes have been on hearth’
Through the investigation into the incident, many who testified to the committee stated they have been unaware the container contained poisonous chlorine, in response to the ASEZA deputy chief commissioner.
Two truck drivers from Amman, who Al Jazeera spoke with on their sixth day of therapy for chlorine publicity, stated they weren't knowledgeable of the poisonous nature of the gasoline.
The drivers had transported the chlorine gasoline from the Nationwide Chlorine Industries Firm in Amman to Aqaba and have been on the port when the container exploded.
“We had no concept that the gasoline was this toxic. No person knowledgeable us,” Mohammad Fathi Attato, one of many drivers, instructed Al Jazeera. Attato’s cousin, who was beside him within the truck in the course of the incident, handed away because of the chlorine publicity.
“If we knew this gasoline was this toxic, we might have by no means gone to Aqaba,” he stated.
Attato, the daddy of eight kids, stated he was knowledgeable that he might not be capable of work for 2 to a few weeks resulting from well being issues from the poisonous gasoline.
“If I don’t work, I don’t receives a commission,” he stated, including he has not obtained any details about compensation for his work-induced accidents.
“There have been no security directions. No security tools,” he added.
Beneath the latest union settlement, APC staff will now obtain an emission allowance of 30 Jordanian dinars ($42) to be paid this month and three p.c of the corporate’s income dispersed yearly, in response to al-Amayreh.
Nonetheless, compensation for staff not employed by the APC, such because the truck drivers, remains to be unclear.
“As quickly as I transfer away from the mattress, I can’t breathe and I really feel like I’m choking,” stated Saeed Yousef Abdelkader, the opposite truck driver hospitalised for chlorine publicity.
Abdelkader stated that in the course of the blast “my eyes felt like they have been on hearth. My mouth was foaming. My lungs began hurting a lot”.
Abdelkader said: “If I knew I used to be loading this [toxic chlorine] materials, even when I had no meals at dwelling, I'd by no means have finished it.”
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