Model occupational health and safety initiatives

In Latin America, galloping urbanization is increasing the amount of excavation or intervention work on networks. All across the continent, Veolia is developing targeted actions to protect teams faced with these heightened risks.

La Fortaleza, a model center in Latin America

La Fortaleza opened its doors in 2016. Located on the Sede Progreso site in Ecuador, this training center offers courses to all staff members exposed to a high risk, managers and operators alike. Its distinguishing feature is facilities allowing trainees to be placed in near-real situations. This proves an effective way of helping them realize the risks and protect themselves against them by learning best practices in situ.

A fifty-hour series of training sessions is offered on the classification of ten management standards for high-risk activities defined by Veolia (see boxed text). Five of these standards have already led to the creation of specific programs: working in confined spaces, at height, in trenches, high pressure and traffic at work. They will be supplemented by three new modules from September 2018: electrical hazards, hot work, and handling hazardous goods or chemical agents.

La Fortaleza finds a following

For Interagua, this preventive approach is applied at every level of the company and concerns every member of staff. In 2017, to help management become aware of the risks operators face in confined spaces, a roleplay session was designed for the executive committee members and managers from the Technical Operations division. The training was given by three already-certified managers. This awareness-raising approach also extends to Interagua’s subcontractors and even operators’ families, who are invited to discover where their loved ones work. A unique initiative in this part of the world, La Fortaleza is gaining a following: Interagua is already preparing to welcome Veolia staff from other countries and share its experience to encourage the set-up of similar centers elsewhere in the world.

Cartoon safety

Tomas Aguas or cartoon safety

“How do you see yourself?” This is the name of the campaign launched in 2016 by Interagua to raise awareness among its staff on the importance of wearing the personal protective equipment provided for them. The fruit of close cooperation between the Communication and Health & Safety departments, the scheme centered on a cartoon featuring Tomas Aguas, a fictional operator who is a kind of safety antihero. Relatively unconcerned about safety rules at first, he becomes their staunch champion after being a victim of accidents. This decidedly playful campaign also called on actors who performed sketches showing the priority safety steps to take. The main rules to follow were also displayed in the agents’ lockers and information screens placed in high-traffic areas. The campaign was a success: Tomas Aguas has become an example to follow, as the campaign’s concluding message aptly puts it: “Tomas has changed. Now it’s your turn!”

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