It was only a few weeks ago, on February 25, that all of Trinidad and Tobago was reeling in shock over the deaths of four divers in a tragedy at Paria Fuel Trading’s Pointe-a-Pierre offshore facility.
In fact, the appalling situation which led to the deaths prompted a series of probes by the relevant safety authorities, T&T Police Service and a Commission of Enquiry into the incident.
The situation also prompted calls from various trade union bodies in other sectors to call for higher standards and the setting up of a body to champion the rights of divers.
This is why the latest tragedy at sea has this media house wondering whether we are as serious with overall occupational health and safety issues that present themselves within this country as we should be.
Two weekends ago, St Vincent and the Grenadines vessel Fari Chance sank in the Bocas after leaving the Port of Port-of-Spain.
Members of the T&T Coast Guard rendered assistance but only two of the seven crew members survived the immediate accident. While the two survivors were saved by a passing vessel, what has transpired since then, in what has essentially been a recovery process, is quite troubling, since questions again arise about our emergency agencies’ ability to handle accidents at sea.
The T&T Coast Guard, which should be aptly skilled to deal with such a recovery, and other private stakeholders involved in the recovery process have now taken over two weeks to recover the bodies of all the men who died in that incident.
There is much blame to be shared in this scenario, since the St Vincent and the Grenadines authorities have also seemingly taken a laid back approach to a tragedy involving their nationals, in the process leaving the victims’ families to journey to T&T for an agonising process in order to get closure.
Having said that, the T&T public must also be concerned about the ineptitude of the Occupational Safety and Health Authority and Agency in matters related to the health and safety of citizens. The authority’s main role is to encourage the enforcement of the OSH Act, promote training and research, provide information, develop regulations and approved codes of practice and to sensitise all stakeholders considered critical in promoting a preventative safety and health culture in T&T. Yet by its own admittance in the Paria tragedy, it lacks the resources so to do and is therefore unable to ensure compliance within public and private entities for the most part. Citizens also cannot be faulted if they were to conclude that OSHA has been reactionary and not proactive in its methods thus far.
Citizens should be very concerned, therefore, that the T&T Coast Guard has been unable to recover the bodies of the men in this latest tragedy without any assistance and that even with help the process is still taking an abnormal amount of time.
Should we not believe that this latest scenario is completely unacceptable and one for which the TTCG must explain itself, all we need do is to put Trini citizens in the same scenario to see whether what has unfolded should not concern us.