We welcome the government's move to relocate chemical warehouses from the capital's Old Dhaka area to less . Not only have these establishments been the cause of several devastating fires over the the past few years, but the legality of their operations -- at least in the context of their location -- has also been questionable.
Which is why it is good to finally see their long-promised relocation finally coming into effect.
After the Nimtoli tragedy over a decade ago -- where a fire that started in a chemical warehouse spread to the nearby residential area causing hundreds of deaths and injuries -- moving these establishments away from the arid has been one of the key recommendations by the home ministry.
According to reports, in the past 13 years, at least 300 people lost their lives in fires in illegal chemical warehouses and plastic factories in this residential area. For such incredibly volatile operation to exist in residential areas is concerning in the first place, but given what we witnessed in Sitakunda last year, one of the largest industrial disasters in the history of Bangladesh, relocation is simply not enough if the cause is to minimize the potential human damage that chemical warehouses can cause.
The safety and security guidelines that chemical warehouses have to follow must be revised to become more stringent and with sufficient punitive measures for warehouse owners that don't follow them well enough.
Relocating chemical warehouses away from residential areas is a good first step in ensuring people's safety, but proper safety inspections must be carried out in chemical warehouses to make sure that people working in such sites are kept safe as well.
