DOHA: With temperature soaring, some Qatari youths have launched a campaign to provide cold water to low-income labourers at work sites in the morning shift. The drive is named ‘Sayfana-Abrad’ which can be translated as ‘Our summer is colder’.
The volunteers visit construction sites and other places where workers gather such as public parks and roadsides to distribute cold water and juices, Al Sharq reports. A member of the group has made an appeal to the public on social networking sites to join the campaign.
Local charity organisations have also launched similar initiatives. Sheikh Thani Bin Abdullah Foundation for Humanitarian Service (RAF) is also running a beat-the-heat campaign.
So far, it has distributed 10,000 bottles of cold water to workers in Doha, Al Shamal, Al Kharitiyat, Umm Salal Mohammad and Umm Salal Ali.
The initiative is continuing and is getting overwhelming response from citizens and expatriates, an official of RAF told The Peninsula last evening.
Doctors and nurses at construction sites have hailed the move saying they have seen some cases of heat stroke due to extreme heat last week.
“It was too much hot last week. Despite all the necessary measures we are taking to protect the workers from being exposed to extreme heat, two cases of heat stroke were reported in my clinic on a single day last week,” a site-doctor of a construction company with thousands of workers told The Peninsula. Of the affected was referred to the emergency unit at Hamad Medical Corporation while the other was discharged after necessary treatment, he added.
“Some other minor cases of heat stroke were also reported. They were given first aid like cold water mixed with glucose and ORS and kept for a while in a cold room. Such cases recover within few minutes”, said the doctor.
He added that his company is providing cold water, glucose and ORS in enough quantities at the site. Workers are being educated about heat related injuries and its symptoms. They were told to report immediately to the clinic when they feel weakness, dizzying, headache, abnormal sweating among others, he added. The govt has strictly instructed companies to comply with occupational health and safety rules at work sites. The erring firms will be identified through cases of heat stroke referred to to the emergency units of Hamad Hospital and punished if negligence is found from their sides.
