Safety kits for sewer men imported from Italy:Dr. Saqib Aziz

Lahore: Punjab government has imported sewer safety kits from Italy for protecting the lives of sewer men during desilting of sewerage which included cylinders for air, compressors, masks and cylinder trolleys. Every kit will comprise of two cylinders and a cylinder carrying six kg air will provide air to the sewer men for an hour. Compressors have been imported for the first time for refilling the cylinders and the compressor will refill a cylinder within half an hour.

These views were expressed by Special Secretary Local Government Dr. Saqib Aziz while addressing a function held under the aegis of Punjab Municipal Development Fund Company regarding handing over sewer safety kits to TMOs. Additional Secretary Local Government Raja Jehangir Anwar and Managing Director Punjab Municipal Fund Company Amir Nazir were also present on the occasion. Dr. Saqib Nazir said that without adopting preventive and protective measures, the desilting of manholes and wells by the sewer men is very dangerous due to which a number of incidents of deaths of sewer men occurred while desilting during the last few months. He said that desilting of sewer is a difficult and technical job which involves threat to human life. He said that keeping in view this objective, it was decided to purchase costly machinery consisting sewer safety kits from Italy. He informed that compressors are not available for refilling of cylinders in small cities, therefore, compressors have been imported for the first time for refilling of cylinders. He informed that compressors will stop automatically after refilling the general air in the cylinders upto 300 bars and refill the cylinder only within half an hour.

Later, Special Secretary handed over sewer safety kits to eleven TMOs and directed them to review the allocated amount in the budget for purchasing more kits. He also directed the TMOs to review their needs and formally allocate funds in the next budget for the purchase of sewer safety kits and also depute an officer for the use and safety of these costly sewer safety kits.