It was hardly a normal day last month for the river rescue team in Qena when they received a distress call from a sinking tanker loaded with 500 tons of phosphate.
“As soon as we heard their Mayday call, we immediately headed to Dndara Bridge near the bank of the Nile where the tanker was sinking,” said Mohammed Abdulrafe, Head of the Reports Department at the River Rescuing Police Station and leader of the scuba diving team.
Days of nonstop work
It was hardly a normal day last month for the river rescue team in Qena when they received a distress call from a sinking tanker loaded with 500 tons of phosphate.
“As soon as we heard their Mayday call, we immediately headed to Dndara Bridge near the bank of the Nile where the tanker was sinking,” said Mohammed Abdulrafe, Head of the Reports Department at the River Rescuing Police Station and leader of the scuba diving team.
Days of nonstop work
Abdulrafe and a team of five divers immediately set to work and managed to rescue six people aboard the tanker. Then, his team, in cooperation with people and owners of entertainment boats, attached the tanker with ropes to keep it afloat. However, the tanker was too heavy to rescue since it contained large amounts of toxic gas and phosphate.
When the tanker started to sink, instructions came from the Armed Forces that the gas should be pulled out of the tanker through manual pumps to prevent the pollution of the Nile, Abdulrafe said.
On the next day, the five divers submerged again into the river to accurately locate the tanker in a second attempt to rescue it.
Abdulrafe explained that on the second try, a huge balloon was passed under the tanker, attached with an air pumping machine from one side and with a winch from the other. However, all attempts failed. Therefore, the Armed Forces in Qena decided to use a much larger winch brought from Cairo on five huge trucks.
Even after the arrival of the winch, the divers continued working for three full days at the sunken tanker’s location. They installed the pumps and attached the trunks to pull out the phosphate from the Nile’s depths. Abdulrafe explained that when the phosphate reached water, it turned into an insoluble solid substance which made it easier to pull it out.
A neglected profession
The sunken tanker, which is still being rescued, has ignited a controversy over the phosphate’s effect on people’s health and the safety of the river transport. It also highlighted the importance of the river rescue profession which is given little attention.
Colonel Shareef Ismail, Head of the Civilian Protection Department in Qena, stressed that highly qualified divers work under difficult conditions due to the highly polluted water, subjecting them to diseases from various forms of waste including glass, metal and garbage thrown into the river, which largely hinders rescuing people.
There are nine river rescue centers in Qena and 28 others in Egypt. They are under the supervision of the Civilian Protection Department at the Ministry of Interior. They are tasked with rescuing people, protecting touristic boats and various kinds of vessels, pulling out corpses and investigating crimes which take place near the river.
Abdulrafe said most of the sinking accidents take place due to the people’s negligence, including swimming in the Nile without knowing how.
Dilapidated equipment
This profession is neglected despite its importance, especially in times of disasters. Abdulrafe said Qena’s rescue centers lack basic diving equipment including proper wetsuits, fins, masks, air regulators, air hoses, launches, life jackets, safety buoys and buoyage systems. Additionally, rescue equipment such as cords, weights, lead belts, air cylinders and diving lamps are all dilapidated.
Furthermore, the workers in this profession are not appreciated, according to Abdulrafe. For example, the divers who worked for 12 consecutive days were not rewarded or honored. Therefore, Abdulrafe called for improving of the divers’ situation, providing the needed equipment to enable them to rescue people in addition to allocating a special place for the river’s rescue tools in the city.
