Summer heat takes its toll on construction workers

Muscat: Although the government has decreed a two-hour midday relief for construction workers during the summer months but the labourers are struggling to work outdoors as the mercury this week recorded up to 50 degrees Celsius in Muscat and adjoining areas.

Building workers say the summer has started with the vengeance making it difficult for them to work during the day in the construction sites.

“It is really hot even early in the morning and the heat continues all evening when we stop working. The midday break is supposed to be the hottest time but that is only a theory. It is as hot at midday as it is in other time of the day,” Mohammed Farook, a Bangladeshi construction worker, told Times of Oman.

The government has ordered all construction companies to ask their labourers to stop working between 12.30pm to 3.30 pm to provide them a break from the scorching sun.

Pakistani labourer Masood Khan said he fainted last week while working in the construction site he works in a Maabela area.

“It was around 4.30 in the afternoon. I was carrying bricks at the site and suddenly I blacked out. The next thing I know my colleagues were fanning my face. I was unconscious for over 10 minutes,” Masood told Times of Oman.

Other labourers said that the heat does not only effect them while they work but when they rest or go to sleep. They call for cooling system in their sleeping quarters to give them a resting relief.

Accommodation

“After working hours, we don’t get a proper rest because our accommodation has no air conditioning. It is really unbearable in the night when we go to sleep with the heat. At least the owners of the construction companies should provide us with air conditioning in our sleeping quarters,” Chandran Raman, an Indian construction worker, said.

Health and Safety experts say that dehydration is the biggest problem for construction workers during the hot summer months.

“When the temperatures is in the 40s then the body gets dry quickly while you are working in the heat. They need to drink a lot of water and work more in the shade. But unfortunately, not all labourers work in the shade. Construction sites are mostly open areas,” Jack Hamilton, an HSE expert, told Times of Oman.