Bonyere Residents Embrace Gas Plant Project

After Initial Hesitations

By Liberty Amewode, News Editor, Back From Jomoro District

Skillful persuasions employed by selected officials from the Ghana National

Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) and the Volta River Authority (VRA) over the

weekend averted what could have become a major obstacle to the proposed Gas

Processing Plant to be constructed in the Jomoro District of the Western

Region.

The officials had gone to the area to engage with the residents, many of whom

will be affected by the project, and to explain efforts by the government to

minimize their suffering.

The meeting with the people of Bonyere, a major town in the district, took hours

as a crisis situation had to be reversed in order to have fruitful discussions

with residents who simply refused to attend the forum at the venue set up by the

chief of the area, Nana Nyameke Annor III and set up another spot for the

meeting.

It took tact and diplomacy on the part of the officials, aided by the District

Security Council, to defuse the tension, eventually appeasing both parties and

holding the meeting at both places.

The multi-million dollar gas processing plant at Bonyere in readiness for the

first natural gas from the Jubilee Field in the Western Region has however

received the full backing of landowners and chiefs from Nzemaland.

This followed an initial protest by farmers after they were said to have been

misinformed by an NGO that a chunk of their land would be taken and crops

destroyed without appropriate compensation paid to them.

The communities were said to have acted on that after a survey at the project

site in Bonyere indicated that some individual farms would be affected and

started to demonstrate against the establishment of the plant.

But at a meeting with the GNPC, the VRA, the Ministry of Energy, chiefs and the

district assembly at the weekend the issue of compensation was thoroughly

discussed and the people have embraced the project, saying they do not want the

project to be relocated to another district.

The project, which is registered with the Environmental Protection Agency, will

address issues such as environmental and social impact assessment studies for

the offshore aspect of the project to be carried out by Continental Shelf

Associates.

Also the resettlement framework policy study contract which will take care of

the environmental and social management framework study has been awarded.

Areas visited by the team include New Kabenlasuazo, Bokakole, Egbazo, Bonyere,

Ndumsuazo and Takinta all in the Jomoro District.

The Business Analyst’s observation was that most of the youth in the

afore-mentioned areas were ill informed about the project and its ramifications

in the area. A few of them who spoke to this reporter claimed some of them have

been made to think that some form of extraction was going to happen on the land,

and taking a cue from what happens in the mining areas, they decided to resist

the project since it could lead to the degradation of the land.

After the clarifications, many of them were happy about the project but remained

skeptical about compensation. But their fears were allayed when Mr. Emmanuel

Martey of the VRA explained to them how the compensation package will be

handled.

According to him, independent Valuers appointed by the government will visit the

area to assess the economic situation of their crops, mostly coconut, and

calculate the compensation according to the economic life span of the trees.

He assured them of appropriate reparation, saying that the government was

committed to making sure that the effect of the project on the people was

reduced to the barest minimum.

Mr. Martey however cautioned the chiefs and people to resolve whatever

differences they have, particularly over land issues, in order to receive the

compensation in time since the government will not be in a hurry to pay the

recompense on land if there is a dispute on it.

He urged them to send their children to school so that they can

acquire employable skills to take advantage of the economic boom coming to the

area as a result of the gas plant.

The Environmental Officer in charge of Special Projects of the VRA, Mr. Seyram

Dzefi, said the project was registered with the Environmental Protection Agency

and will address issues such as environmental and social impact assessment

studies for the offshore aspect of the project to be carried out by Continental

Shelf Associates.

“Also the resettlement framework policy study contract which will take care of

the environmental and social management framework study has been awarded”, he

added.

The District Chief Executive for Jomoro, Mr. Victor Nyianyi Kablan, asked the

people to whole-heartedly embrace the project, saying it would bring economic

progress to the area. He called on them to disregard any information which

seeks to incite them against the project.

The assembly member for New Kabenlasuazo, Malik Issa, expressed his joy about

the community engagements embarked on by the officials to the Business Analyst,

saying he looks forward to the gas plant being constructed in the area which is

expected to bring a lot of economic gain.