More responsible mining

Since the last two centuries (and certainly before that too) jobs in the mining industry have been widely acknowledged to be the most hazardous ever and hundreds of hardy souls risking life and limb have crawled through bottomless shafts just in search of a bonanza of minerals to make an honest living for themselves. Yet across the world the act of digging out precious minerals has continued unhindered without much improvement in safety standards.

Over the years, Pakistan has had its own generous share of mining disasters as a result. The latest such incident occurred in Darra Adam Khel town of Kohat, some 45 kilometres from Peshawar, and claimed as many as nine lives and left three others injured. What magnifies the tragedy in Kohat’s Akhorwal village is that it’s the second such incident in the country in a week.

Apparently the victims died after inhaling toxic fumes within minutes of entering the coal mine. Toxic gases very often released in underground mines and cannot easily be detected 0by human senses. It is often difficult to detect the presence of gas in mines as this may be produced during the conversion of organics to coal.

In addition, gas may be present not just in the mine’s atmosphere, but is also absorbed into coal’s inner surfaces, making a coal mine an inescapable death pit. Installing proper sensors for detecting poisonous gas fumes and air ventilation systems to prevent long-term exposure to miners can prevent deaths. It is not known whether the Kohat coalmine was equipped with this gear or any other safety tools but one can be fairly certain that the number of fatalities could have been contained to a great extent.

Not all threats are easily identifiable : carbon monoxide, for instance, is devoid of colour, smell and taste. The mining sector is in urgent need of sustainable solutions for safety that embrace international regulations. The federal and provincial governments will have to champion the cause of miner safety more robustly if we have to buck the trend of frequent accidents in the mining industry.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 14^th, 2018.

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