SC working 24 hours a day for safety of fans during World Cup: Official

Doha: Manager of the Safety and Health Department at the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy (SC) Eng. Abdullah Al Bishri confirmed that SC has paid great attention to the field of health and safety since Qatar won the honor of hosting the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, which was positively reflected in the completion of eight World Cup stadiums, and the progress of work in record time, taking into account the safety of everyone who worked on these projects.

In an exclusive statement QNA, Director of Occupational Safety and Health Department at SC Eng. Abdullah Al Bishri said that the focus in the construction and start-up phase during the organization of tournaments was on the safety of nearly 90,000 workers. In the past years, they worked in stadium projects and training grounds, but now the focus will be on nearly one million fans in many places in the country, such as stadiums, buses, malls, metro, hotels, event venues and crowd gathering, and this requires the solidarity and cooperation of all partners in the country.

At the stage of the event or tournaments, the general risk assessment, the fire system on the site, the activation of the evacuation plan, how to report accidents or any source of danger, and checking all entry and exit gates, is carried out, Eng. Al Bishri said. This includes making sure that there is no cause of falling or slipping in all the project floors and stairs, and a joint health and safety inspection with the Civil Defense, the ambulance service and the facility management, he added.

He indicated that there are many projects that will be monitored through the tournament’s main operations center, the Aspire Command and Control Center and the site operations center, and there is 24-hour supervision for health and safety personnel at critical sites.

Eng. Al Bishri added that the main objective of the health and safety team is to create a healthy and positive work environment and apply all preventive controls and health and safety standards to ensure the safety of people and property in the projects, which contributed to reaching record numbers. The accident rate in World Cup projects was 0.02, which is a low rate if it is compared to major international projects and previous tournaments, he added.

He pointed out that the keenness to implement all health and safety standards in World Cup projects enabled SC to obtain the gold award from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents. In the construction phase, he said, they have reached 30 million working hours without accidents at Al Thumama Stadium, as well as 20 million working hours at Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium.

Regarding meetings held by SC with internal partners in the country to ensure the safety of the masses, Eng. Al Bishri said that periodic meetings with partners in the country were held, including Hamad International Port, Qatar Airways, Hamad International Airport, Ooredoo, Ministry of Transport, Qatar Rail, Qatar Museums, Ministry of Tourism, Private Engineering Office, Aspire, Civil Defence, and the Security Committee. It was agreed to standardize health and safety standards in the country, and to display a legal record that includes all health and safety laws in the country.

Concluding his statement to QNA, Eng. Al Bishri said that Qatar is certainly one of the safest countries, which was confirmed by global indicators such as the report of the Global Finance magazine in 2021, where Qatar ranked first in the Arab world and third globally, adding that SC promise the masses a unique tournament that combines exciting football competitions with exciting entertainment events.