This welder is holding in his hands a tool that carries as much electricity as a power line. A simple slip could kill him in an instant, making underwater welding the most dangerous job in the world. But it’s also essential to keep bridges standing, oil pipes from leaking, and massive ships from sinking. Here in indonesia, it’s one of the highest-paying jobs, earning welders up to $15,000 in just one week. And they’re in such demand that the government is paying to train certified divers to weld.
Still, they often work with minimal protection. So why is there so much need for underwater welders in Indonesia? And does paying these workers well actually make up for the risks? Suhendar is preparing to leave on a four-month assignment.
Long trips are part of his job, but this goodbye feels harder than usual.
Suhendar has four children. Now, he’s leaving his 14-year-old son Yusuf in charge. Today he’ll be diving in the Indian Ocean by an industrial zone on the coast of Celeron. He’ll be working below a pier that’s still under construction about a mile and a half from shore. His job is to attach a white box called a sacrificial anode to the iron pillars.
The anode is made from a more reactive metal, usually zinc or aluminum. It will rest in place of the column, saving the main structure. The anode has to be replaced every five years. There are 900 pillars here, and Suhendar’s company is responsible for 471 of them. Suhendar will dive with his mentee, 27-year-old Rangga Ahmad Maulana.
Diving raises blood pressure, so they need to check their vitals. Still, there’s only so much they can prepare for. This crew sets up the air compressor that will pump oxygen to Suhendar and Rangga.
Today, they’ll go down with a simple cap and goggles. Instead of carrying a tank on their backs, the men breathe through this blue tube called an umbilical.
It’s the only thing tying them to the boat. The anode is lowered with the help of a rope. Suhendar and the Rangga communicate mostly through hand gestures while finding the right spot on the column. Narrator: After about 15 minutes, they strap it to the pillar and start welding. This is where the real danger begins.
The water significantly increases the chances of a lethal electric shock. The rod is charged negatively and the anode is positive. So electricity will naturally flow from one to the other to complete a circuit. But you need a lot of electricity to melt the rod and attach the box to the pillar.
The heat forms gas bubbles that act as shields, stopping the electric current from escaping.
If they touch the tip of the welding gun, they’d die in an instant. A shaky hand could cause an accident, and it can be hard to keep a steady grip. Narrator: They wear only two sets of gloves and a standard wetsuit. In the US, divers use a lot more protection, but they’re still about 40 times more likely to die on the job than the average worker, making this the deadliest job out there.
Rangga has been shocked before, but he was lucky he didn’t become unconscious.
It takes the divers an hour and a half to attach one anode. They swim up every time they finish one. Pressure at this depth is about twice what it is on the surface. If they go up too fast, nitrogen in their body forms bubbles and blocks blood flow to important organs like the brain or the heart. Suhendar visits a decompression chamber every three months.
The diving has already taken a toll on Rangga. The pier they’re working on will eventually connect ships carrying crude oil to this brand new $39 billion petrochemical plant that will turn it into plastic. It’s part of a big investment push Indonesia is making in the oil industry. The government has offered certain companies up to 100% tax reduction for a decade. They are to build 22 new petrochemical plants by 2025.
And this is a business that’s expanding across the world. Reports project that by 2050, petrochemicals will account for nearly half of the growth in global oil demand.
We’re seeing a huge rush to build additional capacity to produce ever more plastics. And this is not an accident, but it is the plan of the oil and gas industry to continue to monetize as much of a barrel of oil as the industry can. In the US, petrochemical plants have been the source of major controversy, because they emit toxic chemicals that are known carcinogens.
We see enormous releases of toxic pollution. Human-rights organizations have called the areas near the petrochemical plants sacrifice zones. They also pollute waterways. Tiny pellets called nurdles easily slip into drains at factories or sometimes spill out of cargo containers during transport, and they end up killing the fish and birds that eat them. Indonesia is already the fourth-most-polluted country in the world.
Landfills are at capacity. Today, nearly the entire population lives in areas where air pollution exceeds the WHO’s safe air standards.
That’s shortening Indonesians’ lifespans by about one and a half years. The country has launched laws to cap greenhouse gas emissions. But reports indicate those are rarely enforced.
Now, experts fear that building petrochemical plants will create more problems. Steven: So, the plastics industry has done a good job of convincing the public that the plastics crisis is one of consumer behavior, that the problem is litter.
And that couldn’t be further from the truth.
The government has promised the investments will create thousands of jobs. And in a country where 25 million people live under the poverty line, surveys have found that many here are more concerned with economic prosperity than with environmental issues.
Crew: ¡Yes! Narrator: The crew is done for the day, but it will take them another four months to finish all the pillars. The construction phase alone has employed 13,000 workers so far. Once this plant is completed, it will need 1,000 workers to keep it running. Suhendar is looking forward to seeing his children again soon.
He says his son wants to do the same work one day. But Suhendar worries that these waters might be too polluted by the time he grows up…
https://resell-rights-weekly.com/members/?rid=166888
https://reducethehype.com/Downloads/Banner-Viralizer.pdf
Discover more from Making Money Is Easy
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
