HOT & BOTHERED

With 2023 the hottest year on record globally and 2024 shaping up to be even warmer, workers from certain sectors are increasingly under threat from extreme heat. The Straits Times looks at the workers who are getting hot under the collar and what is being done to help them keep cool.

- Shabana Begum

Helping construction workers adjust to Singapore's sweltering weather

On Mr Liu Liangming's first day back at his worksite in May after a three-month break in the temperate climate of his home town in China's Jiangsu province, his supervisor told him to limit outdoor work to no more than two hours.

This was an unusual instruction for Mr Liu, 52, whose vocation involves constructing the skeleton of Housing Board blocks at a site in Owen Road.

As a formwork worker, he usually works under the sun throughout his eight-hour shift.

But on May 15, his first day back, Mr Liu was relieved to be working mostly in the shade, as the sun and humidity felt extra unforgiving after spending three months back in eastern China. During the wintery Chinese New Year period, the temperatures plunged to minus 12 deg C, he said.

"When I first came back, I was not used to the weather. I was sweating a lot more and drank more water, and rested when the heat was too intense," said Mr Liu in Mandarin.

His employer, Pal-Link Construction, placed him on a two-week programme to help him slowly adjust to the tropical heat and strenuous work.

"Formwork is the most strenuous job on-site. After a long break from work, we needed to get him (adapted) progressively, and do less strenuous work in the shade.

That's how we build up his stamina," said Mr Lee Meng Shui, a senior project manager at Pal-Link.

March was also the start of the annual hot and dry period until mid-year, with many scorching days that exceeded 35 deg C.

Mr Liu was one of six Pal-Link workers at the Owen Road site who have undergone structured heat acclimatisation since the programme formally started in August 2023.