CNG hazard

The lack of maintenance or timely replacement of cylinders as they age adds to the risks they pose.

Denial, even in the face of clear-cut facts, is the method we choose most often at the official level to deal with problems, even when lives are put at risk as a result. Such denial is what has come from the chief of the explosives division, who told the investigative cell of this newspaper that no deaths had been caused by exploding CNG cylinders installed in vehicles. This statement contradicts statements from other departments, with at least 100 deaths recorded since 2008. Accidents involving cylinders in vehicles have taken place in cities across the country and many of us can recall these grisly disasters.

Now, it seems more danger may lie ahead. In 2006, an Islamabad-based company had imported some 6,500 cylinders produced by a firm in Austria. With CNG use on a boom at the time, the canisters were sold out by 2007. However, with findings confirmed in the UK in 2008, these cylinders were found to be unsafe and substandard. Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority officials told this publication that cylinder explosions at CNG stations in Karachi, Lahore and Mandi Bahauddin involved Worthington cylinders. They may have blown up in other places, too. The problem is that they remain in circulation, with no certainty about how many are installed in vehicles. The lack of maintenance or timely replacement of cylinders as they age adds to the risks.

This is an issue that needs to be taken note of. Ignoring it puts other lives at risk as the Worthington affair highlights. Urgent action is required to check on the safety of cylinders installed in vehicles. Public transport should be a priority and if checks aren’t made, and we continue to live in denial, there will almost certainly be further loss of innocent life. This is something we need to protect our people from by issuing warnings, at the least. Orders for such action need to come from the top and implementation ensured so that the hazard can be eliminated and the kind of tragedies seen in the past prevented.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 13^th, 2012.