The Risk of Warehouses in Residential Neighbourhoods
The local order No. 23 / 92 on the organization of buildings in Muscat stipulates in article (115) that it is not permissible to establish workshops, factories and crushers in residential areas as such activities could impose a serious risk to public health and cause nuisance to nearby inhabitants. In this regard, setting up stores or warehouses in residential neighbourhoods a phenomenon plaguing municipal work and illegal practice by law, pushing municipal units to combat it.
Amal As`Saltiyyah, who is a social researcher at the community partnership unit in Muscat Municipality, said that there are serious risks of warehouses in residential areas, starting from the warehouse itself, being established illegally without health and safety check up by the civil defence, and they could host rodents and could catch fires for these reasons. Amal continues; "even heavy trucks which transport goods to these warehouses are very noisy, and they pollute by emitting small toxic particles, and could damage the infrastructure in Residential neighbourhoods".
After the municipal campaigns to combat this phenomenon, the number of communications received through the call centre has decreased significantly during the first half of 2022, possibly due to the efforts of field follow-up teams and urban inspection.