By Onward Gangata
THE Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (ZERA) says the country continues to experience an influx of illegally imported gas cylinders.
These illegally imported cylinders are often smuggled from neighboring Botswana and South Africa.
Zimbabwe has over the recent years experienced a drastic rise in the usage of Liquefied Petroleum Gas(LPG).
Only South Africa ranks higher than Zimbabwe in terms of LPG usage in the region.
As a result of the high usage of gas, the smuggled cylinders have a ready market as they are cheaper.
But this comes at a cost as the smuggled cylinders do not undergo quality assurance tests rendering them unsafe.
Speaking during a media engagement meeting in Bulawayo on Wednesday, ZERA head of petroleum infrastructure department Engineer Andrew Guri said the organisation is worried by the trend.
“It is very concerning that we continue to have an influx of illegally imported gas cylinders,” he said.
“Most of these cylinders are obsolete and escape the necessary checks by our experts.
“At the end of the day they become dangerous to the end users and often result in fire explosions.”
He revealed that recently the regulatory body confiscated over 300 illegal gas cylinders.
Eng Guri added that ZERA had to halt the exercise after running out of space to keep the confiscated cylinders.
“A short while ago, we had an exercise where we netted over 300 gas cylinders,” he said.
“In fact we had to temporarily halt the exercise as we ran out of storage facilities, which shows the gravity of the matter.”
Once confiscated, the gas cylinders are destroyed and disposed of as scrap metal.
Eng Guri also highlighted that at the moment due to safety concerns it is illegal to carry out mobile gas stations.
Door to door gas refilling illegal
There is an emerging trend of operators moving around with mobile door to door gas stations.
“The mobile gas stations where one goes to customers at their places of residence and refills empty gas tanks from the back of the car is not allowed.
“That is a dangerous practice which has serious safety repercussions for the customers.
“There is no problem in delivering already filled gas cylinders but doing the actual refilling at the back of a truck or tricycle is illegal,” he warned.
