Is anyone seeing what I am seeing lately in Accra? Why, like a competition, are fuel stations springing up in residential areas these days despite the high potential risks and disasters the industry can present? 

One would have expected that next to food and drugs and perhaps building on watercourses, enforcement of regulations on siting fuel stations in residential areas would be of uttermost concern.  What one is observing lately begs the question.

As my curiosity piqued, I searched to see if there were existing regulations on safe distance in the siting of fuel stations in residential enclaves. 

Regulators that came highly to my mind on this topic included the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) and the National Fire Service (NFS).

Disasters

My search revealed that per NPA’s regulations, fuel stations are expected to meet at least 30 metres distance away from residential areas while GFS requires at least 50 metres distance. 

Are these distance limitations what one is seeing with the craze that is going on or have we closed our eyes to regulations hoping disasters are far-fetched?

One cannot gloss over the agonising nature of some widely reported filling station disasters that hit Accra not too long ago. In 2015 the country was thrown into turmoil with an explosion at a fuel station at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle during a heavy downpour. 

Over 150 people including some who had taken shelter from the rain at the station reportedly lost their lives from the twin disaster of rain and fire. Many others were reported to have suffered burns and other injuries not to mention the level of loss or damage to properties.

Also in 2017, there was another disaster at the Atomic Junction involving an explosion at a gas filling station which allegedly spread to a nearby fuel filling station. There have been isolated reports of explosions in Dansoman Asore Danho and Trade Fair where lives and properties were lost. 

The pain from these disasters is very fresh in one’s mind. Regrettably, they do not appear to have taught us lessons from what one is seeing in some residential areas where new fuel stations are already sited or are springing up.

Indiscipline

What is going on with the siting of these fuel stations reminds one of the indiscipline that descended on us not long ago with indiscriminate siting of fast food joints or what was then popularly known as “check-check”. With little regard to health standards, some rushed into cooking and serving all kinds of convenience fast foods in any available space in some communities.

Container shops and kiosks also made their debut littering residential areas. Beautiful East Legon today is a classical case. 

That kind of indiscipline was carried to a dangerous highway like the Accra-Tema motorway where vehicles are speeding at 100 kilometres per hour. In a twinkle, kiosk settlements had taken over the sides of the motorway with people running across at will. 

The Assemblies and Roads and Highways watched on as one continued to count the number of accidents on the motorway.

A drive through some of the residential areas in Odorkor, Westlands, Achimota and the Airport area recently has got me spellbound with several fuel stations sited so close to residential properties. It was as if I had been away from Accra for ages as I pondered when all those constructions started and completed in a twinkle. 

A banner cited a few days ago at the Airport Residential area close to the railway line and near Nyaho Clinic has set me wondering. I do always complain each time I am in the area with the number of wayside eateries, car wash stations and offices in a typically used-to-be prime residential enclave. 

The banner on a canopy mounted on a space next to a wall was on “a revised local plan for airport residential area”. With my inquisitive cap on, I parked a few metres away and walked across to enquire. I was told that space was earmarked for a proposed fuel station. Really?  Is that why a revised plan?

Are kiosks and container shops littering East Legon, the Motorway and elsewhere answers to a “revised plan” as one continues to count litter and indiscipline in the capital?

As I drove off, I thought about the fate of a once-residential attraction – the Airport residential area.  With another health facility near Nyaho Clinic, are the hundreds of patients visiting every week not at risk with a fuel station in their midst?

I mused over the beautiful residential properties as well as the offices and their occupants’ long-term health and safety.  I even wondered if the railway line would be relocated or left as it is.

While no one will question developments that would bring jobs and at the same time add value to the economy, such developments that border on the health and safety of communities and existing establishments must be critically weighed by our regulators. They exist by law to help protect the vulnerable and bring decency where chaos has the potential to thrive.

May those who are blessed to have the means to invest in fuel stations in highly residential enclaves rather think of the well-being of residents and invest in astroturf, parks and children’s playgrounds and libraries for those communities. Their mutual rewards will be more than good.

*****

You can reach the writer via email at vickywirekoandoh@yahoo.com