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EBRD helps to tackle high rate of industrial accidents

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The EBRD has put health and safety firmly on the Bank’s future agenda, responding to the often fatal accidents that continue to blight industry in many of the countries where the EBRD is active.

Health and safety has been a feature of the EBRD’s environmental mandate ever since its creation in 1991, but even more intense efforts are now planned to address the challenges of worker safety. “This must now become the norm in our activities, especially in extractive industries, but also in the transport sector,” EBRD President Jean Lemierre said.

In mining in particular, accident and fatality rates remain unacceptably high in many countries of operations – but the problem also extends to heavy industry.

Ukraine has the second worst coal mine death rate in the world after China, with a total of more than 4,000 fatalities since 1991.

And the dangers remain inherent across the whole of the former Soviet Union. In March 2007, over 100 Russian miners lost their lives after a blast at the Ulyanovskaya mine in Siberia, an event described as Russia’s worst mining disaster for a generation.

High profile

Recent EBRD projects have already started to raise the profile of health and safety. In June 2007, a US $100 million loan to Mittal Steel Temirtau in Kazakhstan was aimed specifically at modernising the steel company’s coal mines and bringing health and safety standards in line with international best practice.

Health and safety issues are also central to a training programme for Mongolia’s mining industry that was launched in May 2007 by the EBRD and the Mongolian government.

EBRD's Natural Resources Director Kevin Bortz says the Bank has a chance to make a real difference in this sphere. “We will offer loans on commercial terms. But there will be explicit conditions as far as safety is concerned.”

Under consideration is a whole series of initiatives that could be supported by EBRD funding: streamlining the management of mine safety and accident prevention systems; adopting regulatory, legal, organisational and methodological requirements for mine safety; and raising the standard of training of workers. In addition, there could be measures to carry out seam degassing programmes.

Challenging mind-sets

EBRD officials say it is no longer tolerable to accept industrial accidents simply as an unpleasant but inevitable fact of life. According to Mr Bortz, the EBRD’s drive is not simply a question of the installation of state-of-the-art equipment to raise standards out of Soviet-era dilapidation. “We will be working with regulatory authorities. In some countries legislation has to change,” he says. “But it is also a question of addressing the mind-set.”

Alistair Clark, EBRD's Corporate Director for Environment, agrees. “There has to be a cultural change. We have to make sure that minimising risk is a core objective of the companies we work with.” This stretches across many sectors, he says: gold, copper, coal, oil and gas and refining, as well as the construction industry.

Health and safety is also highly relevant to the transport sector. EBRD projects already take into account the safety of the ultimate users of new roads or railroad systems, as well as that of workers involved in the construction phase.

Roads and railways

The EBRD's Transport Director Riccardo Puliti says it is crucial to get all the basics of transport safety right. That includes road design to avoid black spots and excessive changes in gradient and to ensure correct road alignment. Another key factor, Mr Puliti says, is signalling in railways. “A failure of signalling is the worst possible thing that can happen on a rail or underground system.”

But he wants to do more. Up to now the EBRD has concentrated mainly on what he calls the hardware: basic infrastructure and equipment. Now, he says, it is time to discuss funding software. “That’s the people and the education of the people who are affected.”

He points out that road safety education, especially for young people, is important. Better training for police forces to help inculcate a greater sense of the importance of road safety is also crucial.

Training to raise awareness of the dangers of drunk or dangerous driving, a particular hazard in some EBRD countries of operation, could be an additional target for EBRD funding, Mr Puliti adds.

By Anthony Williams, EBRD Head of Media Relations
Photos: EBRD
Contact: Communications Department

2 August 2007