Cabinet's nine-point safety measures to prevent gas explosions in the country will yield no result if government does not adopt a comprehensive policy for public safety, rather than the ad-hoc measures which do not resolve the issues in its entirety.
That's according to the Editor of the Insight Newspaper Kwesi Pratt who said the measures to be implemented in a quest to prevent accidents after the Atomic junction disaster does not even address the very problem that caused the explosion.
President Nana Akufo-Addo on Thursday, October 12, 2017, ordered the implementation of a nine-point safety policy. It will see the roll out of the Cylinder Re-circulation Model of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) distribution.
Related: Nana Addo orders for the implementation of cylinder circulation program
The module, projected by the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), will ensure that LPG filling points are sited out of densely populated areas and commercial centres.
As part of the new safety regulations, there is to be the deployment of a task force, within 30 days, to assess the risk all LPG infrastructure nationwide poses in terms of public health and safety.
Kwesi Pratt said the impression is being created that siting of filling stations in populated areas is the cause of explosions. He believes focus should be on how to ensure safety measures at these places.
He queried "all the measures are centered on how to maintain safety rules at the filling stations, what about the moving vehicles who transport the gas to the stations?"
Mr. Pratt further expressed worry about how all focus has been placed on explosion as if that's the only safety issue bedeviling us while we have potholes, no street lights on major roads and faulty traffic lights among others.
"looking at the measures, no new regulations have been added but rather the enforcement of the old regulations so the question is why were we not enforcing the existing regulations?"Â
He called for a comprehensive policy to address all these issues of safety.
Read also: Video: UPSA students give gov't 4week ultimatum to shut down SEL filling station
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