McCarthy Hills residents to petition Appointment C’ttee against Tina Mensah

Residents of McCarthy Hills in Accra have vowed to petition the Appointments Committee of Parliament following the location of a cement factory in the area captured under the government’s flagship programme, 1 District, 1 Factory.

Residents fear they stand the risk of serious health implications from the pollution that would emanate from the factory.

There are also fears that the sitting of the factory is so close to the Weija Dam which supplies about 50% of water to residents of Accra.

Land Lords at McCarthy Hills have been engaging several state institutions to stop Empire Cement Ghana limited, the owners of the factory but to no avail.

A first letter from the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, dated 27th August, 2020 to the owners of the company to halt production until they review the environmental impact assessment report also failed to stop them.

The company allegedly failed to heed to a second letter bothering on the same assessment from the EPA.

In another letter petitioning the president and captioned “Petition to stop construction of a cement factory on Panbrose Salt Industries Limited land”, the presidency responded with a letter to the owners of the factory to halt operation but failed.

But on Monday, the President of the McCarthy Hills Residents Association, Eddy Neequaye Quaynor told host of the 3FM’s Morning Show on Sunrise, Alfred Ocansey that “We are not going to sit back and allow this to happen to us and our children”.

The residents have therefore vowed to drag the sitting Member of Parliament, who is also Deputy Minister-designate for Health, Tina Mensah to the Appointments Committee of Parliament so she could be questioned on this development.

“What is alarming and depressing is that our local MP and MCE is not doing anything to help. She is being vetted this year for Deputy Health Minister and it's appalling. When we met with them the information she gave was a total lie that the cement factory was going to bag just cement. If you are going to produce bags do you need such 3 huge silos?” he queried.

The angry Residents further said, “We are not stupid, we are all educated. All options are opened to us and we will follow it through”. He assured.

All efforts to get to the MP for the area to respond to these allegations however proved futile.