TELEMAST LOCATION AND ITS SAFETY IMPLICATION IN AN URBAN AREA OF OGUN STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study examined the growing concentration of telemasts and its safety implications in Ijebu Igbo area of Ogun State, Nigeria. Scanned, edge merged and updated topographic maps and satellite imagery of an updated Google Earth Pro data were used to create the database of Ijebu-Igbo with attributes such as telemasts of Globalcom, Mtn, Etisalat, Airtel and Nitel, roads, buildings, health facilities, police stations, fire station and boundary of the study area using Arc GIS 10.1. Results from the analyses showed that average household size is seven (7) and average height of the telemasts is 50m. Also, 35 buildings fall within 10m gap distance of National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA). The database permits generation of shortest distance between locations, alternative distance in case of barrier and nearest health facilities to telemasts in case of disasters. In case of disaster, the likely number of people that may be affected ranged from 7 to 8,141. Increased teledensity is needed but siting of telemasts in public areas should be discouraged and when there is the need, the 10m gap of telemasts to buildings can be reviewed or complied with. More so, the use of Information Handling Service (IHS) sometimes called 'co-location' should be encouraged because it enables multiple use of a telemast by several GSM operators. It is also important that Environmental Impact Assessment be properly conducted in siting telemasts. More so, area of radiation of emission needs to be explored in order to examine costs effectiveness of erecting telemasts in public area.