Three Construction Workers Die In Alexandria After Scaffolding Fails

Three construction workers fell to their death from a building in Alexandria on Friday in an incident apparently caused by poor safety procedures, which are common in Egypt.

The men fell from the tenth floor of the under-construction building in the western part of the city, after the ropes securing a piece of scaffolding came undone, state news agency MENA reported. The trio were aged 30, 31 and 54.

A probe into the accident is underway.

Egypt has poor occupational safety records with high rates of accidents, particularly in manual jobs.

“There are currently neither safety procedures nor awareness in construction companies. Ninety percent of such companies in Egypt do not have them, and 90 percent of the workers aren’t covered by insurance,” Mohamed El-Haggar, a sustainability manager based in Cairo who is certified by the US’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), told Ahram Online.

El-Haggar added that assessments of the construction zone should take place before operations begin, in order to ensure accidents do not take place. “You need policies to be fixed, as well as strict laws to punish the wrongdoers responsible for such accidents,” El-Haggar said.

Source : Ahram online