We need to know regulations on siting of gas stations

Before and after the June 3, 2015 twin disaster of floods and filling station explosion that hit the country, attempts had been made to bring some order into the siting of fuel and gas stations, as well as ensure their proper maintenance.

However, most of the steps taken have been ad hoc, with no clearly laid down rules for the siting of such highly inflammable fuel and gas dispensing stations.

The result is that each year, since the very unfortunate incident at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle GOIL Filling Station that claimed hundreds of lives in 2015, we have experienced fires at fuel and gas stations which have claimed many lives and destroyed properties running into millions of Ghana cedis.

Fresh in the memory of many Ghanaians is the gas explosion at La in Accra last December that had tragic consequences.

Yet we still grope in the dark on the best way forward to end the danger posed to citizens, as a result of the wrongful siting of gas and fuel stations at residential areas.

Some citizens who have had cause to fear for their lives following some explosions, have forced some of the gas stations to be closed down, only for them to be reopened after the stations had allegedly met the safety standards required of them.

We agree that some of the gas stations were, indeed, sited far away from human habitation, but as settlements developed around them, they came very close to some residential areas.

That, however, does not make their siting among settlements legitimate and we call on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS), the Factories Inspectorate Department (FID), the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA), the metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) and all other stakeholders to be up and doing to protect lives and properties.

The people, especially those who find themselves living close to gas and fuel stations, would like to know the rules, regulations and requirements that govern the siting of filling stations, so that they are able to assist the enforcement agencies to bring about some sanity in the siting and also protect themselves from harm.

The Daily Graphic also believes that the various agencies that give out permits for the siting of filling stations should form a strong collaborative force, instead of their current seeming conflicting roles.

If possible, they must all be put under one umbrella so that no MMDA can arrogate to itself the power to permit the siting of a filling station without recourse to the NPA, the EPA, the GSA, the GNFS and the FID.

We must stop justifying the siting of gas and fuel filling stations among human dwellings with the claim that the stations have fulfilled all safety precautions because mishaps do happen from human errors.

As happened in the case of the La gas explosion last year, the fire was caused by the gas tanker during offloading, not by the facility, and this must guide all stakeholders involved to do the right thing.

The Daily Graphic also suggests that once filling stations have been sited on the outskirts of human habitation, no settlements should be encouraged within a certain range. Better still, in collaboration with city authorities and the Town and Country Planning Department, places must be allotted for such filling stations.