Diamond Cement to put up jetty at Aflao beach

Aflao, March 28, GNA - Diamond Cement Ghana Limited (DCGL) at Aflao is to put up a 100 million US-dollar jetty at the coast of Aflao. The jetty would facilitate the delivery of the importation of the company's raw material mainly from the Far Eastern countries. The company currently receives its imports particularly clinker thro= ugh the port in Lome, Togo.

Mr Chitti Babu, General Manager of DCGL in an interview with the Gha= na News Agency at Aflao said a survey for a suitable location had been completed while feasibility studies were at an advanced stage. The company, he said, was also negotiating with Ghanaian authorities= to allow the DCGL to reconstruct the badly damaged five kilometer road linki= ng the factory from the main Aflao highway.

Mr Babu said these measures were to ensure that the company, which currently produces 1.5 million tonnes of cement per annum and employs 400=

permanent and 1,000 casual workers, remained a key player in the industry= .. The company, he said, under its social responsibility plan, spent ab= out GH¢400,000 on community projects, mainly school blocks, at Duta, Denu, Dzodze and Aflao. Mr Babu, reacting to fresh complaints of cement dust pollution in communities around the factory, said the company had remained 100 per cen= t responsive to safety and health regulations of the Environmental Protecti= on Agency (EPA) of Ghana and other international organizations. He said the company had installed highly efficient and high volume cement dust samplers within the plant to suck dust emissions, claiming cement dust levels were below limits permissible by the EPA. Mr Babu said the company would construct what he called a green belt=

around the factory to mop dust emissions.

He said the company had since resettled six households, thought to b= e too near the factory at the cost of GH¢50,000. Togbe Akliku Ahoney II, Volta Regional EPA Director acknowledged tha= t the company was performing within range of permissible dust emission but said the Ketu-South Assembly should formalize its plans of declaring the area an industrial zone and resettle persons located within it. Dr Bediako Asare, Medical Superintendent of the Ketu-South District Hospital, debunked claims that a woman from the area died of cement dust complications at the hospital in 2008.

He said post-mortem on the body at the Police Hospital identified community acquired pneumonia, which is specifically caused by bacteria. Dr Asare said it was in no way related to pneumoconiosis, which is another form of pneumonia related to industrial dust emissions. He said data on skin and respiratory problems available at the hospi= tal indicated more cases coming from communities far away from the factory. 28 March 10