had few friends working for Bin Laden Group in Saudia Arabia. I keep asking them about how safety is being managed there.
This is indirect learning through the experiences of others.
The Rescue Response Plan in Watch Tower Building which has 120 Storeys warrants that Fire Fighting or Rescue Officers must reach to the top in one minute twenty second which seemed Fabulous.
I asked them in emergencies how can they used lift. It was reavealed that there are number of lifts and two are reserved for evacuation with special electricity back ups and controls.
Astonishingly they shared that despite having most expensive safety gadgets they lack Policies, Procedures and good preventive check recordings.
One of them had worked for few months through contractor at our Korangi Plant CCP and he felt the HSE Management at K-Electric was better than what they experienced in Makkah.
Yet another point that left me flabbergasted was the fact that seven employees were given death sentence in crane accident.
Before the crane accident the Local Governmental Safety Manager of Makakh had sent an email to concerned Contractor Company warning him to add counter weights to over head crane operating in Kaaba and also put down the boom.
There were six people in copy of the email.
Because they did not pay heed to safety concern and later it resulted in major accident.
So all seven including one Pakistani Crane Operator and one Safety Officer were goven death sentence.
We need to understand that even when we are in copy of an email we still have some responsibility on our shoulders.
Zahid Faqir
DGM HSEQ