Preventable tragedies

Mining remains among the most dangerous professions in the world, even more so in Pakistan, where many workers are deprived of even the most basic safety precautions and equipment. Substandard working conditions only worsen the plight of miners, with all of these factors converging to cause unnecessary loss of life and limb at a worryingly high frequency.

Earlier this week, 11 miners died of methane poisoning in the Sanjdi coal mine area after their work area, about 1,500 feet deep in the mine, began filling with the gas. The government sprang into action only after the damage was already done, arresting the mine owner and several others over the lack of safety measures at the site. But, given that the incident occurred barely two months after the March incident where 13 miners were killed in a gas explosion in the Harnai coal mine area, it is safe to assume the government did not perform proper precautionary safety audits at any mines. The provincial minister for mines appeared to admit this, saying the mine owners had repeatedly been directed to ensure safe working conditions, including installing air-quality measuring equipment inside mines, yet no action was taken against mine owners for non-compliance.

Meanwhile, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, in a 2022 report, noted that lack of oxygen, mine collapses and gas accumulation and explosions kill over 100 miners every year, almost all of them in preventable accidents and disasters. Many incidents also go unreported, meaning the actual death toll is probably much higher. Yet, there has been no urgency to act on the HRCP’s recommendations or even enforce compliance with existing safety regulations.

There are also no good economic arguments against improving safety standards. It is just a matter of treating workers like human beings, rather than disposable tools. Unfortunately, mine owners are not alone in forcing their employees to endure inhumane working conditions, and economic instability only increases the availability of cheap and easily exploitable labour for such industries.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 7^th, 2024.

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