Residents
of Anyaa School-Junction in the Ga Central Municipality in the Greater
Accra region are sitting on a ticking time bomb waiting to
explode anytime soon if immediate actions are not taken by the
authorities to stop the commercial operations of a poorly-sited fuel
station.
The filling station, Excel Oil Company Limited, is
sandwiched between a chain of residential homes and a natural waterway,
which, according to the residents, pose a serious danger to their lives
and properties.
Today understands the filling station was built
on the blindside of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Ghana
Standards Authority (GSA), Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS), the Ga
Central Municipal Assembly and the National Petroleum Authority (NPA),
which are responsible for issuing permits for construction of gas/fuel
filling stations to ensure that they are not sited in residential areas.
However,
the residents lamented that several calls on the regulating agencies to
close down the filling station seemed to have fallen on deaf ears
despite the risk the business poses to their lives.
They wondered
how it was possible to secure a licence to situate a filling station in
the midst of houses, churches, shops, drinking spots, banks among
others, insisting that it appeared no lessons have been learnt from the
June 3, 2015 twin disasters which hit the capital city.
During a
recent visit, Today observed there were about four metal welding shops
adjacent to the filling station and another welding shop plus a kenkey
(a local delicacy) cooking joint opposite.
What has heightened
the residents’ fear of a possible danger is the fact that these
businesses which are close to the filling station work with naked fire.
And
as result of that they want the EPA, NPA, GNFS to take immediate
actions to avert any impending disaster and save lives and properties.
In
an interview with Today, a police CID person at Anyaa Police Station,
who pleaded anonymity, revealed that all efforts made by them at the
beginning to stop the owner from constructing the filling station came
to naught.
According to the police CID, there was nothing that
could stop the owner from operating the filling station because the
owner had through very strange means acquired operating permit from the
EPA and Ga Central Municipal Assembly.
The police CID alleged
that people in high places were behind the owner of the fuel filling
station and “have circumvented the law to site the station there.”
The
NPA’s regulation stipulate that gas and fuel stations should be sited
at a minimum of 30.8 metres or 100 feet away from residential areas, but
that was not the situation on the ground as the Excel Oil Company
filling station was less than 10 meters away from residences.
It
was also observed that in the event of any explosion at the filling
station, it would not only be limited to the residents in Anyaa, but to
many commuters and passengers from Awoshie, Amasaman, Pokuase, Ablekuma,
Fan Milk, Manhean, Oduman, Joma and Afoaman, who ply that stretch of
road daily.
Also of concern to the residents was the decision of
the owner to site the filling station across a waterway, which situation
they claimed, contributed to flooding in Anyaa communities anytime it
rained heavily.
Whilst some residents could not understand why
that filling station had to be sited on a waterway and close to the
residential area, others were of the view that the EPA, National
Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), GSA, GNFS, Ga Central
Municipality and NPA though aware of the danger, went ahead and gave the
permit to the company.
Some residents told Today that ever since
the filling station started operating, residents have been exposed to
various health hazards.
They disclosed that they had sent a
petition to the Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and
Innovation, Executive Director of EPA, and the Municipal Chief Executive
of Ga Central Municipal Assembly concerning the situation.
A
copy of that petition, they mentioned, was also sent to the Commander
in-Charge of Anyaa Police Station, Director for Legal Department of EPA
Head Office, Director of Standards, Compliance and Enforcement
Department in EPA, Ghana Atomic Energy Commission, TCPD and the
Factories Inspectorate Department, but these state officials and
institutions have all failed to act with a sense of urgency.
According
to the residents, not even the alarm raised by the kenkey seller could
yield any positive results, adding that the EPA met with representatives
of Excel Fuel Station on September 4, 2015 and ordered them to stop
work till the problem was resolved.
They revealed that the EPA
further placed a ‘stop work’ notice on the construction site on
September 16, 2015 but this warning was treated with impunity as work
continued.
The residents averred that another complaint was made
to EPA on September 28, 2015 upon which a meeting was called on October
2015 but the Excel Oil Company did not honour the meeting.
They
said at the said meeting it emerged that the Excel Oil Company forged
the operating permit documents, specifically the signatures, thumb
prints of two of the immediate neighbours as having no problem with the
construction of the fuel station..
“Immediately after, a combined
taskforce of Anyaa Police and the EPA stormed the construction site and
seized equipment. However, work resumed with alarming speed in few
days, adding that various petitions to the Ga Central Municipal
Assembly, NADMO, besides the EPA, have yielded no results and the fuel
station has now started commercial operation,” the residents recounted.
Earlier,
when a reporter from Amansan Television (ATV) visited the place to
speak to the owner of the filling station, a lady who claimed to be the
manageress at the Anyaa office called the owner on phone who used
abusive words on our reporter, asking him “to go to hell because no one
can close down the fuel station.”
Meanwhile, the Municipal Chief
Executive of the Ga Central Municipal Assembly, Mr. Aristo Aryee, has
explained to the affected residents that he issued the permit to the
owner of Excel Oil Company Limited based on the environmental assessment
of the EPA, a claim the EPA had since denied. |
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