Leaders irked by Engen’s lack of accountability following December explosion

ENGEN is a terror in Wentworth.

This is according to some of the 13 appointed leaders who strongly feel this way six months after the Friday, 4 December explosion. This comes after their many engagements with the company’s management.

Having many of their questions either deflected or left unanswered, they’ve had to resort to speculations and rely on their own research in the matter.

Founder of Wentworth Angels, who is a part of the community’s delegates to Engen, Tracey Williams, said the company has not been forthcoming and is not the good neighbour it claims to be.

“Following the explosion, there was a lot of damage done to the properties in ward 68 and surrounding areas. I can confirm that small claims have been dealt with, however, that just decreases the numbers of homes affected. There are still residents waiting for their claims to be processed,” she said.

Coupled with issues of block 10 residents, who still have not been reinstated in their homes, she said there was an even more pressing issue. She said Dr Devan Pillay was at the front line to treat the community of various ailments on the fateful day.

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“Many had suffered trauma, shock, skin irritation, burning eyes as well as advanced asthma. To date, some patients are still consulting with these ailments. Engen, on the other hand, is not coming to the party in compensating Dr Pillay. They have degraded and insulted him to this very day,” she said.

The spokesperson for a faith-based movement, Gangsters for Jesus, who wished to remain anonymous, said to date, the company had not answered even one question.

“They have not even explained to the community what the impact of the explosion was. We just know that it happened at the diesel desulphurisation plant.”

“They took two delegates of ours for a walkabout around the plant. From the report we got from them, we understand what impact the explosion had on the refinery.”

“But, they have not given us an incident report on what effect the impact had on our community. We had to speculate and started doing research on how the desulphurisation plant works and its purpose,” he said.

Of its many purposes, he said, the plant does hydrogen sulfides (H2S) removals to make their products ozone friendly. Further research revealed to them that H2S is deadly in the right parts per million (ppm).

“In that explosion, we established that the plant had to be running for it to have an explosion. And if that is so, and they were still refining the crude oil, clearly whatever they were extracting was not taken out.”

“We’re speculating because we don’t have answers. They plan on turning the plant into a storage facility and this creates an even bigger risk factor.”

“The multipurpose pipeline on Tara Road runs six metres from people’s homes and pushes various gases from the refinery. The facility will become one big bomb. If they can’t maintain a refinery, how will they maintain the storage?” he probed.

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Dr Pillay, a respected member of the community, who has been working with the community for a number of years, said he feels let down by Engen.

“I am disappointed that I am subjected to the scrutiny and degradation of such a huge corporate,” he said.

“We mobilised our team in a few hours, after the blast, to ensure the most affected were treated urgently. It was indeed traumatic seeing those casualties especially the babies, young school-going children, and senior community members,” said Anita Vurden, a nurse from Dr Pillay’s practice who was on duty that weekend.

“We have had numerous meetings with Engen management. They continue to try to draw the focus away from the explosion. A question that ponders my mind is that Engen is stalling and we, as leaders, are fighting for our communities.”

“We want the 4 December issue resolved. Only then can we work together with them as the good neighbours they want to be,” Williams added.

A comment from Engen was not forthcoming at the time of publication.