JEDDAH, 17 October 2003 — While Saudi Arabia is notoriously strict in some areas, it is famously lax in others. Road safety is the most obvious area where the Kingdom lags behind the rest of the world in enforcing basic rules, and safety standards in general are not all they could be. An area residents are beginning to highlight is the way cooking gas cylinders are handled.
People living near shops that sell these potentially explosive containers say the cavalier way they see them being handled fills them with mortal fear.
“I am looking for a new apartment,” Sulaiman Al-Seraihi, who lives near a sale point, told Arab News. “I live in fear because there is the possibility that an accident could happen any time. The problem is that the people who work in these places are not professionals.
“I don’t believe that they are trained to respond to the situation if an accident happened. If one of the gas cylinders exploded, hundreds of other gas cylinders would too — the domino effect could lead to a major disaster.”
An Egyptian resident said: “I don’t like the way I see employees in these places handling the gas cylinders. Instead of picking them up, they roll them along the pavement and push them with their feet. Workers in these places should be required to have a certificate from authorities that they are qualified to handle these cylinders.”
Ahmad Ali would prefer the danger to be out of the way of residential areas. “There should be at least 200 meters between them and any residence. Also, the authorities are going to have to inspect these places regularly and close down any shops that violate safety regulations. Who knows what goes on there,” he added.
