Safer factories

New conditions to obtain a license to build and operate industries

The Ministry of Industry has put in place a set of general conditions that factories and industrial units must adhere to in order to gain a license to operate. The guidelines, published in a decision dated January 24, are illustrated as follows:
-Restricting all industrial operations to within the factory building.

- Establishing adequate passageways between the machines to ensure the safety of workers.

- Ensuring that all production units are well-ventilated.

-Prohibiting the use of any flammable material (such as wood, textiles…) within production units.

-Prohibiting the storing of hazardous material in the open air; hazardous substances must be kept in ventilated closed storage places removed from the ground.

-Keeping fuel tanks in isolated, secure storage places, and ensuring safe electric wiring.

-Installing power generators in a separate room - generators must be equipped with filters to minimize harmful emissions, and silencers to reduce noise pollution.

-Performing regular maintenance on all generators and machinery.

-Sorting out solid wastes resulting from the factory’s operations and handling it through environmental-friendly methods and disposing of wastewater in accordance with technical standards after it has been treated at a relevant refinery.

-Installing fire alarms and eco-friendly automatic extinguishers and distributing manual fire extinguishers throughout the factory – workers must be trained on using fire extinguishers.

-Installing warning signs in all necessary places across the factory, and urging all workers to use personal safety equipment during production operations.

-Enforcing a smoking ban in all areas of the factory.

-Obtaining insurance against fires and work-related accidents (for workers as well as property).