The spill occurred when a tank carrying 25 tons of chlorine gas fell during transit on June 27, killing 13 people and injuring more than 300. During a press conference on Sunday to announce the results of the investigation into the incident, Jordanian Interior Minister Mazen Faraya said the main cause of the leak was “the lack of compliance” of the cable with the weight of the cargo, which caused the cable to to snap – apart from negligence and lack of precautions and expertise in handling dangerous goods. Jordan’s cabinet fired the directors-general of the state APC and Jordan Maritime Commission and other port officials over the incident, Faraya said at the press conference. On Monday, APC Workers Union President Ahmad al-Amayreh told Jordanian state media that the union decided to end the strike due to health and safety conditions after consultation with the newly appointed director general. Mohammad Yousef al-Darawish, an APC employee for nearly 30 years, was one of eight people still receiving treatment in hospitals for exposure to the toxic gas as of Sunday. He told Al Jazeera that he never felt safe at the port. “I’ve been busy [there] since 1995 and not once did I take a safety course,” he said, also citing the lack of personal protective equipment for dock workers. “Thank God, I’m alive, but there are some people, my colleagues, who are dead,” al-Darawish said. “I saw them with my own eyes, very close to me, dead… It was a disaster.” The al-Amayreh union leader told Al Jazeera that the port of Aqaba had experienced a long period of “neglect on top of neglect” and said the recent gas leak was not the only incident that occurred as a result of poor practice and lack of adherence to protocols security. Al-Amayreh referred to an incident last year where a metal pole fell and killed “one of our close colleagues”. Since then, he said, union leaders had met regularly and filed multiple complaints about safety concerns at the port, but “nothing was done, nothing changed.” Al-Amayreh said personal protective equipment was “basically useless”, there were no safety courses for workers and “there were no strict orders to follow public safety directives”. Now, under the recent agreement, additional security measures will be taken at the port’s terminals and shipyards, according to al-Amayreh. Hamzeh al-Hajj Hassan, the deputy head of the Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority (ASEZA) and also on the commission of inquiry, told Al Jazeera that the incident at the port was the result of “a problem of miscommunication, a problem with a workforce that is not well-qualified and definitely a problem with safety regulations.’ Hassan noted that around 2,700 people are currently employed at the port, while only 500 to 600 workers would be sufficient to carry out the work. He said the excess workers led to a major “manpower problem” which contributed to the failure to check whether the cable could support the chlorine tank.
“My eyes felt like they were on fire”
During the investigation into the incident, many who testified to the commission said they did not know the container contained toxic chlorine, according to the ASEZA deputy commissioner general. Two truck drivers from Amman, who Al Jazeera spoke to on the sixth day of treatment for chlorine exposure, said they had not been informed of the toxic nature of the gas. The drivers had transported chlorine gas from the National Chlorine Industries Company in Amman to Aqaba and were at the port when the container exploded. “We had no idea the gas was so poisonous. Nobody informed us,” Mohammad Fathi Attato, one of the drivers, told Al Jazeera. Atatou’s cousin, who was next to him in the truck during the incident, died from chlorine exposure. “If we had known that this gas was so poisonous, we would never have gone to Aqaba,” he said. Attato, a father of eight, said he was told he may not be able to work for two to three weeks due to health complications from the toxic gas. “If I don’t work, I don’t get paid,” he said, adding that he has not received any information about compensation for his work-related injuries. “There were no safety instructions. No safety equipment,” he added. Under the recent union agreement, APC workers will now receive an emissions allowance of 30 Jordanian dinars ($42) to be paid this month and 3 percent of the company’s profits will be dispersed annually, according to al-Amayreh. However, compensation for workers not employed by APC, such as truck drivers, is still unclear. “As soon as I get out of bed, I can’t breathe and I feel like I’m suffocating,” said Saeed Yousef Abdelkader, the other truck driver being treated for chlorine exposure. Abdelkader said that during the explosion “my eyes felt like they were on fire. My mouth was foaming. My lungs started to hurt so much.” Abdelkader stated: “If I knew I was loading it [toxic chlorine] material, even if I didn’t have food in the house, I would never do it.”
