Bahawalpur inferno
Despite its 122 million-plus population, Punjab has only 280 burn recovery beds for the entire province
The writer is a researcher and a student of MPhil at the Graduate Institute of Development Studies in the Lahore School of Economics
The Bahawalpur inferno was a heart-wrenching tragedy that shook the nation to its core. An incident, which was entirely avoidable, has so far taken the lives of 190 victims. Just a day before Eid, on June 25 at around 6:30am, a speeding oil tanker crashed on the outskirts of Bahawalpur en-route from Keamari, Karachi, Sindh, to Vehari, Punjab. Following the accident local residents and passersby rushed to gather the oil that spilled onto the fields nearby. However, the “happy-go-lucky” mob met its fate when a fiery blaze broke out which engulfed the people and burnt them to death.
This horrendous episode has triggered several thought-provoking questions, fundamentally to look for its probable root cause. One might question whether the occurrence of the accident was related to malfunctioning of the trailer or was it a direct consequence of misgovernance? Did it just stem out of mere poverty that encouraged people towards engaging in such a daring act?
One of the reasons for this accident was negligence; nobody checked whether the highly inflammable oil tanker was road worthy or not. According to an automobile industry expert, who deals with road cargo, the vehicle was unsafe. It was overloaded and was not in compliance with the standards set by the National Highway Authority to carry inflammable goods. The oil tanker was poorly designed and manufactured without proper fire safety valves. Its brakes and tyres were of substandard quality.
Secondly, the necessary steps to be taken as soon as the oil tanker crashed, due to blowout, was to cordon off the surroundings engulfing the oil spillage. Although the incident had taken place on the National Highway but even after two hours of the oil spillage, there was no sign of the highway police or civil administration.
Lastly, the aftermath of the blaze posed grave challenges for rescue teams because apparently there is not a single hospital in Bahawalpur division with a burn unit. Hence in no time casualties skyrocketed; even those victims who could be treated, died due to non-availability of hospitals with burn units and burn recovery beds in the vicinity of the incident.
Despite its 122 million-plus population, Punjab has only 280 burn recovery beds for the entire province. This shows the harrowing situation of the healthcare system with its visible scarcity of equipment and resources to manage emergency situations. Correspondingly, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) was absolutely absent from the crisis situation, although it claims to extend assistance in case of natural as well as man-made disasters. However, the army came to the rescue but due to dearth of hospitals with burn units in the vicinity of the incident, victims had to be transported via helicopter to Multan and even Lahore but unfortunately many succumbed to their burn injuries.
It is the responsibility of the provincial and local governments to create a conducive environment for citizens by investing in socio-economic developmental projects that are pro-poor and trigger economic growth in a way that promotes equity in society. This way poverty and ignorance could be tackled but unfortunately actual social issues are ignored and their negligence results in terrible consequences.
In addition to this, it is mandatory that the role of regulatory authorities should be stringent in making sure that those companies which manufacture and design oil trailers meet safety standards and their vehicles should be road worthy while transporting dangerous goods to avoid accidents in future.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 3rd, 2017.
This horrendous episode has triggered several thought-provoking questions, fundamentally to look for its probable root cause. One might question whether the occurrence of the accident was related to malfunctioning of the trailer or was it a direct consequence of misgovernance? Did it just stem out of mere poverty that encouraged people towards engaging in such a daring act?
One of the reasons for this accident was negligence; nobody checked whether the highly inflammable oil tanker was road worthy or not. According to an automobile industry expert, who deals with road cargo, the vehicle was unsafe. It was overloaded and was not in compliance with the standards set by the National Highway Authority to carry inflammable goods. The oil tanker was poorly designed and manufactured without proper fire safety valves. Its brakes and tyres were of substandard quality.
Secondly, the necessary steps to be taken as soon as the oil tanker crashed, due to blowout, was to cordon off the surroundings engulfing the oil spillage. Although the incident had taken place on the National Highway but even after two hours of the oil spillage, there was no sign of the highway police or civil administration.
Lastly, the aftermath of the blaze posed grave challenges for rescue teams because apparently there is not a single hospital in Bahawalpur division with a burn unit. Hence in no time casualties skyrocketed; even those victims who could be treated, died due to non-availability of hospitals with burn units and burn recovery beds in the vicinity of the incident.
Despite its 122 million-plus population, Punjab has only 280 burn recovery beds for the entire province. This shows the harrowing situation of the healthcare system with its visible scarcity of equipment and resources to manage emergency situations. Correspondingly, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) was absolutely absent from the crisis situation, although it claims to extend assistance in case of natural as well as man-made disasters. However, the army came to the rescue but due to dearth of hospitals with burn units in the vicinity of the incident, victims had to be transported via helicopter to Multan and even Lahore but unfortunately many succumbed to their burn injuries.
It is the responsibility of the provincial and local governments to create a conducive environment for citizens by investing in socio-economic developmental projects that are pro-poor and trigger economic growth in a way that promotes equity in society. This way poverty and ignorance could be tackled but unfortunately actual social issues are ignored and their negligence results in terrible consequences.
In addition to this, it is mandatory that the role of regulatory authorities should be stringent in making sure that those companies which manufacture and design oil trailers meet safety standards and their vehicles should be road worthy while transporting dangerous goods to avoid accidents in future.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 3rd, 2017.