Tema residents protest over Karpower smoke

Residents of Tema Newtown and its surrounding communities are calling on government to relo­cate the Karpowership, a Turkish floating power plant stationed at Tema.

According to the residents, smoke emanating from the power ship is polluting their environment causing havoc to even wildlife in the area. The residents said they might be compelled to demonstrate against the management of the power ship.

Although Karpower is producing electricity for the country they noted, it is also causing a lot of mayhem.

Francis Agyemang, a resident indicated that several efforts to get the management of the power ship and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to resolve the matter has yielded no result so they have been left with no option than to embark on a protest.

The Member of Parliament (MP) for Tema East Constituency, Daniel Nii Kwartei Titus-Glover confirmed the problem to the Daily Guide stating that the Karpowership is causing a lot of destruction to the fauna, flora and lives of people in his constituency.

According to him, the relaxation centers such as the beach where peo­ple go to unwind are the worst hit areas. He noted that “the fumes, the smoke that is coming out from the power generation comes straight to our surroundings and places of relax­ation making it difficult for people to relax."

He called on the various regulato­ry bodies such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Power Ministry to conduct an environmen­tal assessment of the operations of the power ship and ensure that the right thing is done. The MP threatened to take the various regulatory bodies on if they fail to discharge their duties.

Karadeniz Powership, Aysegil Sultan, with an installed capacity of 235MW, is brought to supplement the energy needs of the country. It pro­duces on average, 210 MW of unin­terrupted electrical energy running on low sulphur heavy fuel oil.