Scrap EPA now! - Ghanaians charge Mahama

Scores of concerned Ghanaians have lashed out at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), describing it as “useless state institution” which must be dissolved.

According to the angry Ghanaians, the dissolution will help solve the numerous problems facing the Agency which has been in existence for the past 41 years.

These problems, they said, have had effects on all the regional and district offices of EPA in the country thereby making the smooth running of the Agency difficult.

This call comes in the wake of a public announcement by EPA to the effect that “it has now resolved to remove all Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) stations from residential areas that failed to meet the guidelines for the establishment of such businesses."

But in an interview with Today on Wednesday, April 8, 2015 some Ghanaians described the move by EPA as a "big joke and lie" saying the decision is a face-saving exercise by the Agency to show to Ghanaians that it has what it takes to protect the environment and the safety of Ghanaians.

“We want to clearly state without mincing words that the move by the EPA is long overdue, because we have realised that EPA always wants a disaster to occur before it struggles to find solutions to the problem.

"...our concern is to see to the dissolution of the EPA as it has failed to live up to its expectation,” the angry Ghanaians lamented.

It would be recalled that last week Monday, April 6, 2015 two persons, including a 70-year-old man, sustained severe burns when a gas tank in a car parked at a filling station near the Wesley Grammar Senior High School at Dansoman in Accra exploded.

The media reports following the incident drew the authorities’ attention to the growing public concern over the sighting of LPG and fuel stations in residential areas in Accra.

The guidelines for the sighting of LPG stations, this paper learnt, was a collaborative work of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), the EPA, the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC), the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS), the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA), the Town and Country Planning Department (TCPD) and the Factories Inspectorate Department which require that the stations renew their permits every 18 months.