Home ›› 15 Dec 2021 ›› Opinion
The incidents for electrocution happen due to the use of substandard appliances, negligence in proper use of appliances, absence of fire extinguishers and excessive use of electricity beyond approved load capacity, etc. Data of the Burn and Plastic Surgery hospital revealed that patients of electric burn have been increasing day by day since its inception. In 2020, a total of 2,854 patients were admitted with burn injuries. Most of the electric burn victims died instantly and a majority of the rest suffer from physical and mental disability.
Electric accident in United Hospital and Narayanganj mosque could have been avoided if there were regular inspection of electric appliances by their own management and the competent authorities. Fire hazards can only be minimised if each and every household is keen to supervise their own connections and appliances under legal obligation. Our domestic users are reluctant to check the electric line and appliances in their domain on a regular basis. Again, electricity distribution companies are not in a position to supervise line and appliances inside individual houses or buildings.
In developed countries, each individual is under legal obligation to install fire alarm and fire extinguisher in their houses or buildings. Experts from the city council carry out surprise visits and if they find things are not being carried out properly, households need to count huge fine. The Singapore city council hires private inspection companies to regularly inspect electric lines of each and every household including commercial buildings and provide necessary advice on what needs to be done. Thus, fire incidents in Singapore are the among the lowest in the world. In the absence of inspection teams in our country, household electrical fires occur every year for which incurring huge loss of lives and property are common. The fire incidents could be minimized, if the city corporation or the fire brigade office, or the electricity distribution companies hire a competent firm to inspect and report about the condition of the wire and unapproved load capacity against each household and buildings. At the same time competent authority in this regard could impose fine to the households who do not follow the fire safety rules. The cases involving electrocution or electricity-related incidents might be avoided if regular inspection is in place.
The city councils of developed countries provide flyers to generate awareness among the households about the electrical safety tips. National firefighting teams of some countries arranged demonstration of rescue from fire emergencies on a regular interval at different localities to make the people aware about the dangers. The television when they broadcast news of fire incidents, provide a clear fire safety tip in that report to make the remaining citizens aware as well.
The first world countries are strictly vigilant about their electricity cable and due diligence is attached with electric line by the providers round the clock. Thus, the death rate due to electric burn injury is minimal in developed countries.
Electric injury accounts for a number of deaths each year in our country. When we see news of the incidents of fire, we barely give importance on that news with an idea that the victims may be at fault. For these unnatural deaths, very often we put the blame on perceived bad luck of the deceased person who got electrocuted and died due to his own negligence or ignorance.
People living rural areas and urban slums do not have sufficient knowledge regarding the proper use of electricity. Moreover, availability without maintaining general standard of electric equipment’s such as switch, sockets in some cases in rural areas makes things more difficult. The number of electric-related injuries in rural areas is increasing but these incidents are typically underreported. One of the reasons behind this is that most of the villages have electricity now without having idea regarding using it. A study conducted in 2003 revealed by interviewing 330,000 people that 7,163 people were permanently disabled and 9,210 people died due to electric fire. Study revealed rural people, slum people and children of less than five years were the most vulnerable group for burn and electrical injury. Low literacy rate and a lack of safety measures might be the reason behind it. Electrical injury is increasingly becoming a great threat to consumers of electricity for absence of comprehensive strategy to address this issue. There is no recent study for which the latest data in this field is unknown. So, more and more studies are required in this field to understand the magnitude of incidents of electrocution. Rural people are getting electric connection without sufficient precaution of using electricity. Now agriculture needs electricity, but using electricity with proper knowledge is simply absent. In rural areas, in some cases, electric equipment’s are available which is not up to the standard for which outbreak of fire and electrocutions are common in rural areas. Neither the electricity providers nor the consumers are serious about electric fire accidents until they actually happen.
The rubber coated cover of electric cable could save a large number of innocent lives. Village level awareness campaign, villagers group discussion, billboard, posters, community radio can alert them for safe use of electricity. A pragmatic “national electric burn and lightning prevention strategy” also needs to be in place.
Another recent challenge has added to the conventional incidents of electrocution such as lightning. Bangladesh is one of the tropical countries with a high number of lightning injuries in recent years, causing high mortality and morbidity. The exact degree of the lightning is still unknown and therefore a comprehensive study is required to understand the magnitude of this issue as well.
Smart management and routine inspection of electric cable may reduce the number of electrocutions. Laws also need to be enforced that would make building owners liable for leaving live wires within reach of people. Electric cable with rubber coated cover, awareness campaign at rural or slum areas about lightning and electrocution, use of standard electric equipment’s such as sockets, switch, air conditioners etc may prevent the situation of death of innocent people. Checking of power line and electric equipment by a third-party farm hired by the city corporation or the competent authority in this regard in urban areas and by the union parishad in rural areas may contribute to minimize the incidents of unnatural death due to electrocution. Respective laws may need to be amended in regard to punish the defaulters and save thousands of innocent lives from dying of electric burn injury.
The writer is a former Senior Secretary to the government. He can be contacted at s22arefin@gmail.com
