COUNCILLORS have called for faster implementation of a plan to relocate aviation fuel tanks from a residential area in Muharraq.
During a tour of the area in Arad, several members of the Muharraq Municipal Council said that despite a directive by Oil Minister Shaikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Khalifa in March last year to remove the tanks from the area, nothing had been done.
Chairman Ghazi Al Murbati said there have been many complaints from residents who expressed concerns about the matter.
“They are afraid, especially after the massive port warehouse explosion in Beirut.
“At the very least, the ministry can stop using these tanks and instead start using the new tanks that were built at Bahrain International Airport.”
On August 4, two explosions in Beirut caused at least 177 deaths, 6,000 injuries, and $10–15 billion in property damage, leaving an estimated 300,000 people homeless.
The event was linked to about 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate – equivalent to around 1.2 kilotons of TNT – which had been confiscated by the Lebanese government from an abandoned ship, MV Rhosus, and then stored in the port without proper safety measures for six years.
Area councillor Ahmed Al Meghawi told the GDN last week that the new tanks are ready, but undergoing tests.
“We were told the tanks in Arad would be moved gradually but things are moving ‘too slowly’,” he had said.
Last week, the Interior Minister General Shaikh Rashid bin Abdulla Al Khalifa announced the establishment of a committee that will take stock of dangerous substances in the country, their storage sites and inspection mechanisms.
The panel will also ensure appropriate measures are taken from the time such dangerous substances arrive at the kingdom’s ports to the time they are transported to their storage sites, away from urban areas.
In 2015, the GDN reported (January 19) that hundreds of parents living in Arad had signed a petition demanding the relocation of an electricity complex that was in the same block as aviation fuel tanks and a kindergarten.
They feared for the lives of 620 children attending the Birds Nest Kindergarten located near the fuel tanks, which the Cabinet had a month earlier agreed to relocate, and opposite the newly-fenced compound belonging to the Electricity and Water Authority.
In March 2015, a joint venture between Bahrain Airport Company and nogaholding was set up to finance, own and operate a new aviation fuel complex at the airport.
In July that year, a BD1.4 million design and management services contract was awarded to consultancy firm Mott MacDonald for a new fuel farm complex and fuel hydrant at the airport.
ghazi@gdn.com.bh
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