At least three coal miners died on Sunday and two others were left unconscious as result of exposure to a poisonous gas inside a coal mine in Balochistan's Dukki district.
The incident occurred in the coal-rich Chamalang area of Dukki district.
Police official Ghulam Ali said the coal miners were working thousands of feet deep inside the mine when the incident happened. Other miners, through their own efforts, retrieved the bodies of the three deceased.
"We worked for six hours to retrieve the bodies of our fellow miners", Naimatullah, a coal miner told South Punjab News via telephone. There was no effort on the part of the government to help us, he lamented.
The unconscious miners were rushed to the nearby rural health centre for medical treatment.
The deceased miners belong to Zhob district of Balochistan. The bodies were handed over to their heirs at the hospital.
According to the Pakistan Central Mines Labour Federation, casualties from accidents among labourers working in coal mines range from 100 to 200 every year.
Coal mining has historically been fraught with hazards, which are similar to those associated with the aftermath of natural disasters: suffocation, gas poisoning, roof collapse, rock burst, gas explosions and a plethora of lung diseases, including incurable diseases like coalworker's pneumoconiosis, also known as black lung disease.
In the past eight years, more than 318 labourers working in coal mines have been killed in the course of their employment in Balochistan.
Just in the first eight months of this year, at least 50 miners have died in Balochistan and in August alone, 17 coal miners lost their lives in two separate incidents.
In one of these incidents, labourers were digging 300 feet deep in a coal mine owned by a local company in Bolan district, where they reportedly suffocated to death on account of lack of oxygen.
The other incident occurred due to an explosion in a coal mine in the Sanjdi area of Balochistan, claiming the lives of 15 labourers.
According to government sources, there are at least 20,000 labourers employed across Balochistan in 2,500 mines.
The frequency of mining accidents should not numb officials and the public to the terrible human toll the accidents inflict. Disaster struck coal mines in two areas relatively close to Quetta on Saturday as seemingly preventable accidents caused a death and injury count in the dozens. In one coal mine, a methane build-up was the cause of a devastating explosion that killed many. In the other coal mine, a mudslide trapped and killed and injured several miners. A professional investigation can determine if criminal liability is warranted for the mine owners or operators, but it should be apparent that without a radical overhaul of the mining sector, further accidents are regrettably inevitable. While mining is and will remain a dangerous sector for workers — accidents also occur occasionally in advanced economies — what is galling is that few lessons, if any, are learned in Pakistan. Methane build-ups and conditions conducive to cave-ins ought to be identified early and adequate steps taken to protect workers.
It is possible to identify specific problems in the mining sector, articularly in coal mining. The Mines Labour Federation, which has been protesting the latest deadly accidents in Balochistan, has demanded better protection for workers and can surely offer sensible and reasonable suggestions for strong safety measures. But with manufacturing and mining safety generally a problem across the country, particularly in the unregulated sections of the economy, the problem is fundamentally of capacity and will at the policy and administrative levels. When political leaders and government officials talk about workers, it is either in terms of enhancing the minimum wage or job creation. The quality of jobs and particularly safety protections for workers barely register in political and governance discourses. Compounding that problem is either a disinterest in or hostility towards labour unions, which if effectively organised and capably led can help improve the quality of industrial and mining jobs.
The upcoming general election is unlikely to see immediate positive change in worker safety. In Balochistan, for example, mining safety may be at the bottom of governance priorities given the myriad problems in the region. The record of other provinces may only be marginally better when it comes to worker safety. Ultimately, safety requires resources and effective enforcement. The formal sector has its own problems, but there are safety lessons that can surely be learned from the management of well-run, exported-oriented factories, for example. Finally, compensation for the injured and the families of the dead in industrial accidents should be examined. Mining attracts some of the hardest working but poorest workers in the labour force. When catastrophe strikes miners, entire families and multiple generations can be blighted. It is a moral responsibility of the state and should be a legal responsibility of employers to provide reasonable compensation in the case of injury or death.
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