Abdul Lateef Al Al-Sheikh

Abdul Lateef Al Al-Sheikh, minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs, said secretariats and municipalities in all provinces, cities and governorates should abide by municipal and technical instructions related to warehouses.

Municipalities and secretariats issue licenses according to municipal and technical requirements for public warehouses, while taking into account safety requirements and space of the warehouses.

Each warehouse should represent an independent area with a wall of cement (thermal partition), according to the categorization of danger levels, in addition to safe electric wiring and installation. He said these areas are not suitable for human accommodation.

The municipal specifications and conditions have special instructions related to location. The warehouse should be located within approved areas, such as industrial areas in the skeletal scheme of cities and villages, or within locations that are licensed for this use.

The location should be easily accessible. Its height shouldn’t be more than eight meters; front, side and back rebound spaces should be available according to the space of each warehouse; and each warehouse should have a car park with one parking space for each 70 square meters.

The municipal requirements include general conditions that divide warehouses into two categories: first, high-risk warehouses, which have flammable substances, (chemical substances, logs, textiles and building materials). The locations of these warehouses are coordinated with Civil Defense. The second category is warehouses that have no risks, such as foodstuff. These can be built inside cities if the location is suitable, and authorities gave their approval.

General conditions stipulate that establishing workers’ accommodations inside warehouses isn’t allowed, and using flammable materials such as wood isn’t allowed in building public warehouses.

The ministry stated that technical requirements include architectural requirements that clarify the quality of the structure of the building. All horizontal and vertical axes should be clarified in the plans, and warehouses should have sufficient light and ventilation.

Exits should open onto the main road, and each warehouse should have two exits with a distance that doesn’t exceed 15 meters. An outer pavement should be built with a suitable height for loading. The building shouldn’t be more than eight meters high, and architectural plans should be included.

Technical requirements include construction requirements that focus on soil testing to define its type and content; the design of the warehouse; depth of the foundation; type of the foundation; and special recommendations related to building in the location. The cement floor of the warehouse should be designed to take a maximum weight for each one square meter of ground. It should also be able to take the weight and movement of cranes, if they are used.

Electrical work should be designed according to Saudi standards or any approved international standards.

Safety requirements and fighting fires should be according to the safety requirements of the Civil Defense. Building of the warehouse should abide by the instructions of the Civil Defense, with clarifying safety and firefighting schemes, which include, escape, firefighting, distribution of fire extinguishers, and fire alarms. Technical requirements focus on conducting regular maintenance of all devices, and electrical and mechanical linkages.

Fire extinguishers should be regularly maintained according to instructions of the Civil Defense. Warehouses should follow a sound storage system. The municipality has the right to close the warehouse if it doesn’t carry out regular maintenance and calibrations, or if it doesn’t abide by safety requirements.

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