The lifes and deaths in my job - the perfumed concrete

The perfumed concrete

India 2013. I love going to India. Especially since i most of the time have enough bonus miles to make myself feel comfortable in the first class; and I can stop for a couple of days in Abu Dhabi to let the sun sink in. India always bestows me with the Forest Gump feeling - you never know what you get out of that candy box ;) Sure, a death case is always drastic and not funny, but it never is boring either..

Our committee in Germany didn't know what to do. It already has been some days since on a construction side near Chennai, Tamil Nadu, the concrete reeked unbearable . The problem got worse and worse and even the local building company didn't know what is up. Some of the machinery was stinking,
the used water, the floor and sometimes it seems to be the whole construction side. They probed the floor, no result. In finished rooms additional funnels were added to get rid of the bestial air, nothing helped. I was sent, so hop hop into the first class,
partying with 3 swedish models (BEST.FLIGHT.EVER!) and into the dirty, reeking, hot India. They didn't exaggerate. The construction side was smelling. Abnormally smelling.
I occasionally go hunting with my friend (even though i have less and less time for that). We found a dead boar once,
which was slowly dissolving. That's what it smelled like, just way stronger. ** It reeked of death and decay**. First things first: As all workers on that side, I plugged my nose.

As always I started with checking the protocols of the foreman and project managers of the side. Only "unusual" thing was, that since the beginning of the construction a security guy as well as a worker did not turn up for work one day. That's not that special for India though, who doesn't want to work any more and can leave the 100 rupies (1.3eur) for the previous day, is just going - no need to say anything. Since I didn’t get anywhere with this, I stepped with one of the foreman, "Shankar" over the whole area.

I noticed that the "walls" were reeking. The whole concrete was smelly. Everything smelled. After some super complex thoughts of mine (seems rather simple now, but try doing it at 40+ degrees and a constant urge to vomit) i figured the one component, all of those elements had in common: Everything had something to do with water! (yeah, that took me whole 20minutes..glad I studied)

As a conscious German, I wanted to take a probe of the water to send to the laboratory. The translator (I have worldwide maybe 14, with which I'm quite familiar after all this time. Without those guys, which not only translate but also do everything with me i'd be pretty lost. I trust them blindly what i sometimes have to do, since they are also responsible for my security in regions like Afghanistan, Egypt, Somalia, Russia and other countries with alot of shootings)
So my translator suggested to approach the situation more directly and to check out the cistern.
A lot of construction sides which are somewhere anywhere, are provided with their own cistern to ensure water supplies especially in the dry times of the year. So they dig a huge hole, sometimes they put into an enormous tank (as in this case) and somehow filled with water. Drying out a small lake, essential for the survival of one or two farmers? No problem ;)(In this case, that was not the case though)
On top of the tank a big lit is placed. On the way to the cistern the foreman explained, that the tank recently made problems, because the storm carried away the lit or a big hole was torn into it. The cistern is a couple of meters away from the construction side so no dirt, oil or other chemicals get in. I nearly stepped onto this stupid lit because the opening of the plastic tank is on floor height, and after nearly 1.5 years of construction time, grass was growing over it. The foreman joked that the lit is very thin, it probably wouldn't carry my weight.
It seemed weird to me, as if there were some pressure on it. In order to keep the lit from getting away again a metal belt was attached to its borders. The foreman released it and the lit jumped of. Everyone of us, getting in some of the tanks air, started vomiting. Everyone who was breathing out in the moment was vomiting as soon as he inhaled. The foreman (who probably already saw a lot of shit already, I mean he is working in India) puked the more, after he saw into the tank.

What we found inside of the tank would have made nice material for live leak. We found the 2 workers who didn’t turn up for works. In addition to that we found some dogs, cats, unidentifiable insects a goat and a fucking cow!
Every of those unfortunate creatures missed the lit as I did and fell into it. Because the tank is this deep and even in
the raining season you have at least 2 meters from the waters surface to the top of the lit, nothing escaped alive.
It carries some irony, that no one except the construction side was missing those 2 workers. Otherwise, they would have been searched for. Nobody, no friends nor family reported them as missing. Unfortunately, workers also were washing themselves with the water, which is the reason why they never got rid of the smell. Its a miracle that no official reported illnesses appeared.
In the end it was found that the cow was dissolving the longest in the tank and everything else was lured by the smell. The whole construction side was so smelly that workers plugged their nose, not noticing that it was the tank where the smell was coming from. Also its really dark inside, so it was hard to see if somebody looked in.

Apart from the fact that no cistern will be sunk on floor level and the lit now can carry a tank, the side was closed and people thought what to do with the cistern.
I was awarded a meadal, because I found the problem within 2 days and the committee started vomiting blood, working their brains how to get rid of the smell in the already used concrete - which doesn't seem possible. The ** loss** of the company I was told recently went up to the 2 digit millions because the factory was not finished in time, was not able to be used in any case and the product it was for did not go to the market. The construction ruins are to be sold and a smaller factory is supposed to be on this place.