THERE were reports in the newspapers of Feb 12 of a boiler explosion in Faisalabad which killed four workers and seriously injured 11 others.

This is not the first incident of its kind. Many such incidents have occurred in the past but remedial measures to prevent such mishaps have not been adopted for unknown reasons. This is a gross compromise on safety. This causes fatal casualties whenever such an accident occurs.

As a quality assurance expert, I can say with authority that a periodic inspection of boilers, particularly their tubes, was not carried out. As a result there was scaling within the boiler tubes which over time became choked and consequently resulted in the explosion of a boiler.

I would recommend that boilers wherever installed must be regularly inspected and tested so that the amount of scaling can be assessed. This is the responsibility of factory inspectors deputed by the provincial governments.

The provincial governments should make it mandatory that no boiler is to be operated without its fitness certificate to avert such tragedies in future.

Engr Riaz Akbar
Wah Cantt

Published in Dawn, February 16th, 2020