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Courageous crews of underwater scavengers plunge into Myanmar’s waterways to seek for scrap steel and salvage sunken vessels, a dangerous job that takes a heavy well being toll.
By MOE THAW DAR SWE | FRONTIER
U Than Naung, a diver who makes a precarious residing salvaging scrap steel from the Yangon River, is getting ready to work. He suits a diving helmet with a respiration tube over his head, straps on a weighted belt with an hooked up mesh bag and a lifeline round his waist, and descends into the murky water.
He scrounges for iron, lead, copper, wooden and even items of coal from the waterway, a distributary of the Ayeyarwady River that skirts downtown Yangon earlier than emptying into the Gulf of Mottama.
Not lengthy after Than Naung entered the river close to the Kamakasit jetty, the respiration hose indifferent from the helmet, which crammed with water. He shortly eliminated the helmet, put the respiration tube into his mouth and tugged on the lifeline to alert his assistant within the boat above that he was in hassle.
There was no response.
He jettisoned the diving belt and mesh bag and commenced rising almost 20 meters to the floor, his lungs bursting as he held his breath.
“If my assistant had been paying consideration he would have pulled me up after I tugged the lifeline,” mentioned Than Naung, 56, complaining about dropping the helmet and weighted diving belt.
The life-threatening drama befell in April in Dala Township. Than Naung mentioned he has had not less than 5 such mishaps since he started working as a salvage diver some 30 years in the past.
There are two sorts of divers making a residing on the muddy backside of the Yangon River and different inland waterways. Casual scavengers like Than Naung get well objects that may be offered, whereas extra established firms will receives a commission by boat homeowners to get well sunken vessels.
Each must depend on well-honed tactile expertise developed over years of expertise, a course of they are saying have made their palms grow to be their “eyes”.
“Even when we are able to’t inform it’s iron by wanting carefully on land, we all know if we contact it underwater,” mentioned 35-year-old Ko Thant Zin Oo, who’s been a diver for 20 years. “It’s the identical with bronze.”
“Our day by day earnings are unsure, not like building staff or the porters who load and unload boats. They know they may earn K15,000 or K20,000 a day, however there are days after I don’t earn a penny,” mentioned Thant Zin Oo. He mentioned probably the most he can realistically hope to earn in a given day is K100,000 (round US$50), however on a few events he’s made as a lot as K2 million.
Divers like Than Naung have a small window of alternative on daily basis to do their work, as decided by the tide. The optimum interval is between excessive and low tide, when there’s little present, which they name “water time” and solely lasts round two or three hours.
There are 5 classes of staff, named after outdated Burmese cash. The bottom stage is one maat, who does menial duties on the boat and will get paid the least. The very best ranks are one kyat and 5 maat; they do the diving and receives a commission probably the most.
A working day often entails transferring from place to put, mooring the boat with a small, five-pronged anchor known as a blair, and hoping to strike it fortunate.
“Once we connect the anchor, I am going down and search. If we are able to’t discover something, we take away the anchor and discover one other place. Typically we have now to go looking lots earlier than we discover one thing,” Than Naung mentioned.
The divers consider that a lot of the steel and different objects they salvage is jetsam from British and Japanese vessels which have been on the backside of the river since earlier than independence in 1948. After greater than 75 years, they are saying there may be much less and fewer to search out.
“This stuff don’t develop on their very own in water,” mentioned Thant Zin Oo with amusing.
“I salvage all the things I can discover to make a residing, as a result of what we search for has grow to be very uncommon,” mentioned Than Naung.
Salvaging sunken boats
Thet Lwin Oo, now 35, first started diving for sunken vessels as a young person together with his father, who was taught in flip by his father. He has the crimson eyes, robust, massive fingers and copper-coloured pores and skin which can be widespread options of salvage divers.
He first realized the best way to get well vessels whereas rising up in a village close to the Ayeyarwady River in Sagaing Area’s Shwebo Township. However his status as a talented diver has seen him known as to work within the Chindwin and Thanlwin rivers and the waterways of Rakhine State.
About three years in the past he moved together with his household to the business capital as a result of an rising variety of vessels had been being recovered within the Yangon River.
“When our workforce is requested to salvage a vessel, the very first thing we do is conduct a survey to calculate how lengthy it’ll take to retrieve it and the way a lot it’ll price. Then we negotiate with the proprietor,” Thet Lwin Oo mentioned.
He mentioned they will earn between K10-20 million, relying on what number of days the job takes, which is cut up among the many workforce of eight he co-manages.
Aside from checking whether or not the boat continues to be structurally sound, the preliminary survey can be geared toward discovering out how a lot mud or sand has amassed inside it.
“I’ve to do that with my palms,” mentioned Thet Lwin Oo. “Recovering a vessel is straightforward if it has not been on the backside of a river for too lengthy. However it additionally will depend on the boat’s dimension; large vessels are tougher,” he mentioned.
If the boat proprietor agrees to the asking worth, the workforce will get to work. They use two salvage strategies, relying on the boat’s situation. If the vessel has not been broken, it’s raised by attaching floating drums to the hull and pumping them stuffed with air.
Nonetheless, if the boat has been broken it’s often minimize in half with hacksaws and pulled to the shore in items. Thet Lwin Oo mentioned chopping a ship in half beneath water can take a very long time, particularly because the minimize must be as straight as doable.
If a ship has a steel hull an inch (2.54cm) thick, it could take a complete day to make a minimize a metre lengthy, he mentioned.
“We take turns, not less than two hours every. I am going down for 3 to 4 hours,” Thet Lwin Oo mentioned.
When the chopping is completed, the boat’s halves are pulled to shore by a much bigger vessel, and the proprietor can promote it for components.
“It’s a problem taking over this work as a result of if we fail, we lose our status. As soon as we begin we are able to’t cease. We should succeed,” Thet Lwin Oo mentioned.
A lethal job
In 2017, Thant Zin Oo, who usually works within the Yangon River, was requested to assist in the restoration of a army Y-8 transport aircraft that crashed on a flight from Myeik to Yangon. The four-engine Chinese language-made turboprop plunged into the Andaman Sea about 70 kilometres southwest of Dawei killing all 122 passengers on board, together with troopers and their households.
Thant Zin Oo mentioned the army requested his workforce to assist with the salvage operation, which concerned elevating the fuselage utilizing airbags. It was a job that proved deadly for one in every of his colleagues, U Noticed Naung.
Thant Zin Oo mentioned he and Noticed Naung dove down 35 meters with diving fits and oxygen tanks to the seabed to connect the airbags and returned to the floor after they had been inflated.
“I went first however after we boarded the Tatmadaw restoration vessel and eliminated the diving fits supplied by the military he collapsed and misplaced consciousness,” he recalled.
The folks round him mentioned he had been touched by ye nhar, decompression illness, and recommended sending him again underwater, a process often called in-water recompression, which is barely advisable as an absolute final resort.
Thant Zin Oo mentioned Noticed Naung regained consciousness after being dunked underwater, however misplaced consciousness once more when he was introduced again to the ship every time.
“After doing that two or thrice, I turned scared and didn’t dare do it anymore. The army took him to Dawei Normal Hospital earlier than he was transferred to the 1,000-bed Defence Providers Hospital in Yangon’s Mingaladon Township, the place my good friend died three days after being admitted,” Thant Zin Oo mentioned.
“I used to be additionally affected, however I didn’t lose consciousness. My physique, palms and toes ached,” he mentioned, including that given his expertise diving in rivers, he was completely unprepared for the stress of the ocean.
Thet Lwin Oo mentioned even diving within the rivers could cause well being issues over time, together with eye ache, ringing within the ears, hassle listening to and chronic complications.
“The deeper the water, the tougher it’s,” he mentioned.
Than Naung mentioned one other well being danger is business respirators that use compressed air as a substitute of oxygen, inflicting lung harm.
“Individuals get chilly after they work in water on daily basis and it impacts the muscle mass and joints,” he added.
On the day Frontier interviewed Than Naung, he advised associates his physique was aching and he didn’t really feel properly. Considered one of them gave him a standard Burmese drugs – a combination of greater than 20 components together with liquorice, clove, sandalwood and coriander – to dissolve in water and drink.
At 56, Than Naung is without doubt one of the oldest divers working within the Yangon River. He not has the stamina of his youthful years and is bone drained on the finish of every day.
“I’ve been diving for greater than 30 years and don’t have as a lot endurance as earlier than,” he mentioned, including that he expects he’ll must cease working in round two years.
“However after I retire from this job my future is unsure as a result of I don’t know what else I can do.”
Moe Thaw Dar Swe is the pen title of a Myanmar freelance journalist.
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