ABU DHABI, (Pakistan Point News - 02nd Jul, 2020) As entities and companies gear up to return to work from office following the current directives, precautions and preventive measures become all the more important for ensuring the health and safety of staff in all sectors.
While remote work and stay-at-home procedures were implemented at a rate of 100 percent in various entities, workers and field employees at operational facilities continued to work around the clock, from their workplaces around the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, to ensure uninterrupted supplies at all times, which, in turn, helped ensure business continuity for vital sectors that serve citizens and residents in the emirate.
The energy sector demonstrated tremendous competence and efficiency during the COVID-19 outbreak, maintaining an uninterrupted supply of water and electricity to residential and commercial establishments in the emirate. This, in turn, reflected the Abu Dhabi Department of Energy’s, DoE’s, commitment to ensuring business continuity at water and electricity facilities and prioritising worker safety.
Eng. Abdul Rahman Alalawi, Health, Safety and Environment Director at the Abu Dhabi Department of Energy, asserted that the DoE is collaborating with all operating companies and licenced businesses in the sector to come up with optimal solutions and processes to meet health, safety, and environmental standards and comply with the DoE’s objectives.
"In collaboration with licenced entities in the emirate, the energy sector companies performed nearly 10,281 precautionary medical check-ups to detect any COVID-19 cases among workers. Furthermore, 371 sanitisation points were set up across various facilities," Alalawi noted.
"As further precautions, companies in the energy sector distributed 538,027 protective equipment to more than 16,000 workers in key energy and water facilities to prevent against COVID-19," he added. "The DoE instructed companies to establish isolation rooms for staff who show symptoms or have been in contact with infected individuals, before transferring them to the competent authorities."
The DoE issued directives to all licenced entities to distribute protective gloves and masks in the workplace to prevent the spread of the virus, Alalawi added.
The DoE is also working to raise awareness among employees and workers to ensure their safety, he explained, citing the 11 campaigns that were conducted in March and April 2020 for workers in energy facilities. Additionally, ongoing meetings were held remotely to follow up on operations, to make sure companies are meeting their requirements and support them to overcome the challenges.
"The Department of Energy has published a manual about the preventative measures for the COVID-19 pandemic for all licenced entities in the Abu Dhabi energy sector, to better prepare them to face the novel Coronavirus outbreak, implement the procedures and controls stipulated by the Abu Dhabi Government, and adhere to international best practices," Eng. Alalawi commented. "The DoE directed distribution companies to upgrade all their online services and allow customers to complete all of their transactions remotely."
The DoE reports are classified into three main categories: operational incidents, health and safety incidents, and environmental incidents.
