Tuesday 11 September 2007

Ten people trained in handling asbestos are in Gizo this week to remove the deadly substance from government houses destroyed by the earthquake.

The team is part of a joint Solomon Islands Government-RAMSI project to train 25 Solomon Islanders in the removal of asbestos from buildings.

Asbestos is a building material that is very dangerous for people’s health that has been used around the world and in Solomon Islands as a strong building material. It is estimated that at least 50% of all government buildings across every province contains asbestos.

The training is teaching Solomon Islanders how to deal with the asbestos safely without harming themselves or the public.

The Regional Assistance Mission has funded the training to increase the number of people in Solomon Islands that know how to remove asbestos safely.

Harry Sanau is the Director of Infrastructure for Solomon Islands Prison Service and is now qualified to supervise the removal of asbestos.

“Asbestos has been in Solomon Islands for a long time without us knowing how dangerous it is.”

“When RAMSI came to help us in rebuilding and renovating government buildings and houses, we found a lot of asbestos.”

“We need to be able to train our own people to do this job – which we can now do with these new skills. I think every ministry should do this training”, he said.

During the training the team removed asbestos ceiling and walls in the Ministry of Lands building. The trainer said that people are now at a point where they can work with local contractors to help RAMSI rebuild old government buildings without risking their lives or the public.

RAMSI Development Coordinator, Stuart Schaefer applauded the Solomon Islands Government for sending government workers from both ministries and provincial governments to attend the training.

“By working in partnership with the government we can address the problem of asbestos in old government infrastructure that requires rebuilding or renovation”, Mr Schaefer said. “Asbestos can be deadly and we have found a lot of it in government buildings during RAMSI’s clean-up efforts in Gizo after the April earthquake and tsunami.

George Maere is a senior works officer from Makira Province with a big job ahead of him. He estimates that more than 80% of government buildings in his province have asbestos in them.

Mr Maere is excited to go back to Makira fully trained, but said provincial government needs to make sure that all buildings are inspected for asbestos before anyone starts to do any work on them.

The workshop participants are in Gizo as part of their training to help remove asbestos from government housing destroyed by the April earthquake, including the Magistrate’s House and Police Commander’s house.