Some residents have appealed to the Federal and the State Governments to urgently relocate tank farms, currently sited within residential areas in the Apapa neighbourhood of Lagos.
They made the plea last weekend in Lagos, while reacting to the January 8 petrol tanker accident in Apapa, which killed not less than 15 people.
The Manager of Beachland Estate, Apapa, Mr Gbenga Egunjobi, said that tank farms were not supposed to be located within residential areas.
He said most of the tank farms were built long after the construction of the estate and other residential buildings.
Egunjobi called for the immediate relocation of tank farms from residential and port areas, saying that many people, including workers and residents, had experienced explosions from the tank farms.
“I advise government to relocate the tank farms from the residential areas because tank farms are supposed to be at least 25 kilometres away from where people are residing,” he said.
A Marine Consultant, Mr Alex Brain, said there was need for tank farm operators to be extra vigilant, while upholding safety measures because of the volatile environment they operated in.
He said tank farm operators ought to be security conscious because of the volatile nature of their environment.
Also, the Director, Lagos State Fire Service, Rasaq Fadipe, urged the Federal Government to relocate the tank farms from Apapa to other parts of Lagos. He said the tank farms were highly combustible, adding that any slightest fire could snowball into a serious disaster.
He said that the Apapa neighbourhood has become choked, stressing the need to relocate tank farms in the area to fallow lands.
“We have lands in the Ibeju-Lekki and Badagry axis, if the tank farms are relocated to such areas, it will open up development in those places,” he said.
Copyright Ships & Ports Ltd. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit given to www.shipsandports.com.ng as the source.