Safety mapping for the transportation of raw sewage by trucks in Bahrain

Abstract As the Kingdom of Bahrain's population and development expand, sewage transport outside the national sewer network becomes an ever increasing requirement. Due to the risk associated with sewage transport, an evaluation of industry safety practices has become necessary. Four main factors were selected to make a comprehensive safety assessment model, namely: safety policy compliance, route planning effectiveness, accident management and vehicle reliability. A questionnaire-based study was used to assess compliance to these factors using descriptive and quantitative methods. The study also included a safety mapping analysis to visualize the outcome of the evaluation of the factors of the assessment model. The development and use of indices in analysing both objective and perceptual questionnaire questions and safety mapping, to evaluate the sub-factors of the assessment model, are the main contributions of this study. The main conclusions of this study were: that a safety assessment model is used to evaluate the safety performance level of the sewage trucking companies; that the model developed can be used as a base for a comprehensive safety compliance checklist for raw sewage trucking to be used by the authorities and the trucking companies; and that larger companies uphold the safety principles better than smaller companies