The five-member committee tasked to probe the June 3, 2015, fire and flood disaster, recommended a review of siting of fuel stations and highlighted the need for stricter safety measures.

[contextly_sidebar id=”nLGetNxGw762LLfjZEsxk1wO35mCqYkz”]A leaked report, sighted by Citi News said: “the NPA, EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] and GNFS [Ghana Fire Service], should ensure that the siting of fuel stations and gas stations is critically examined and safety measures put in place to save lives and property.”

The report also said “the NPA should conduct regular unannounced inspections of retail outlets even in the night, and document all such inspections,” among other recommendations.

But no serious signals, safety-wise, were seen from the government or regulatory authorities despite the scale of the June 3 disaster which claimed 154 lives and injured over 150 persons.

It however took the massive explosion in October 2017, at an LPG filling station at Atomic Junction, where seven lives were lost for any serious action from the government.

State has gone to sleep

The Bureau of Public Safety, in a statement, said it leaked the report in the interest of the public.

It said state institutions responsible for instituting corrective actions by implementing recommendations had either failed to discharge themselves fully or had simply gone to sleep following the disaster.

It thus urged the government to revisit all accident investigation reports since 2012 “to review and evaluate recommendations submitted.”

The Bureau added that, this will ensure the implementation “of corrective measures proposed by the various investigation teams.”

The outrage, following the explosion, highlighted the widespread concern over the lax safety standards of some LPG and petrol filling stations, which has seen about six major explosions and multiple deaths since then, not counting the June 3 fire and flood disaster at a petrol station.

In October 2017, the government announced some key interventions, among which fuel stations deemed high-risk across the country were to be shut-down and the construction of petrol/diesel and LPG filling points halted.

In all the President directed the:

• immediate inspection of all gas stations and the vigorous enforcement of existing regulations by the National Petroleum Authority;
• review of the current licensing regime to ensure that only those with demonstrable capacity and competence engage in the LPG distribution business;
• institution of mandatory training and certification of the staff of Regulators, Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) and LPG Marketing Companies to ensure the safe handling of LPG;
• review the safety protocols along the entire value chain through the combined efforts of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Ghana Standards Authority (GSA), National Fire Service (NFS), Town and Country Planning Department of the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation and the Factories Inspectorate Department of the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations;
• deployment of a task force, within 30 days, to assess the risk that our current LPG infrastructure poses in terms of public health and safety. High risk stations will be immediately closed down, in accordance with relevant law and without regard to any political or special interests. Low risk stations will be designated for the supply of gas for vehicles with improved safety standards;
• the immediate incorporation of standards and guidelines developed by Ghana Standards Authority on the handling, storage and distribution of LPG and other petroleum products as technical regulations to strengthen the enforcement regime;
• the recruitment by NPA of 200 safety auditors to join the staff of the Factories Inspectorate Department of the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations to check regularly on all stations to ensure full compliance with safety standards and practices;
• expedition of action by the Fire Service and the Police Service of on-going investigations. Any operator or regulatory official, against whom any act of criminal negligence is established, will face the full rigors of the law;
• immediate cessation, until further notice, of all construction of facilities intended for use as gas or petroleum retail stations.

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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post June 3 report recommendations on fuel stations ‘abandoned’ for 2-yrs appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Available statistics indicate that between 2014 and 2017, Ghana has witnessed eight major gas explosions – the Kwame Nkrumah Circle (3^rd June 2015), Nungua-Zongo gas explosion (18^th July 2014), Trade Fair Explosion (23^rd December 2016) to mention but a few. There is therefore the urgent need for a long-lasting solution to this seemingly insurmountable problem that poses serious threat to human life, property and natural environment.

Whilst there already exist, in our view, a sufficient regulatory framework (The Environmental Protection Agency Act, 1994, Environmental Assessment (Amendment) Regulations 2002, National Petroleum Act, 2005, Spatial and Land Use Act 2016 amongst others), the lack of proper coordination and enforcement of laws by the relevant sector agencies has contributed to the recurrence of the problem.

As a point of departure, we take due-cognisance of the fact that there is some willingness on the part of government to arrest this growing menace (evidenced by the remedial strategies put forward by the government in the wake of the most recent gas explosion at Atomic Junction).

Further to that, we first and foremost highlight the urgent need for an in-depth environmental impact assessment (EIA) of pre-existing and new developments (including proposed ones) to ensure that they are in conformity with the stipulated laws.

Operationalising this recommendation requires a cross-sectoral approach in which sense the lead government agency, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should work in liaison with other relevant bodies like the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Energy Ministry, Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS), National Development Planning Commission, Town and Country Planning Department (i.e. the Land Use and Spatial Planning Authority) and the District Assemblies to ensure that environmental impact assessments undertaken adequately leverage on the full technical expertise (in terms of rigorous locational audits, mitigation and remedial strategies necessary for the safe operation of petrol and gas filling stations) of officials of these respective bodies.

Within this purview, the strict compliance and enforcement of the statutory regulatory mechanisms (including the revocation of the licenses of operators for non-compliance with statutory legislation and those facilities which fail to meet the stipulated environmental safety standards) remain vital in ensuring proper due-diligence in the siting of petrol and gas filling stations.

Both the EPA and the NPA could also draw on their discretionary powers to create additional by-laws, if necessary, to enable them to effectively deliver on their statutory mandate. Added to this is also the need for a review of punitive measures (including an upward adjustment of the penalty fine) for non-compliance as outlined in Sections 13 (1-4) of the Environmental Protection Act 1994, Act 490 to ensure that they are deterrent enough in complying fully with stipulated environmental safety regulations.

It is also common knowledge that the relevant sector agencies – the Environmental Protection Agency, Town and Country Planning Department etc. – are overwhelmed with several challenges (including personnel and logistical constraints) that hamper the effective execution of their duties, particularly in relation to undertaking regular environmental monitoring and auditing.

It, therefore, remains paramount to strengthen the capacity of the respective sector agencies at the district levels (in terms of increased staffing and supply of requisite logistics) to enable them to deliver on their legal mandate. In the case of the Environmental Protection Agency, the establishment of the National Environment Fund (as specified under Section 16 of Act 490) offers a good financing option that the EPA should tap into in procuring some necessary logistics needed for their operations as stated previously.

Moreover, periodic environmental monitoring and auditing of all petrol and gas filling stations by the EPA in conjunction with other relevant remain paramount to ensure that on-site safety measures and devices are functional and fit for purpose.

Recognising the staffing requirements for these technical operations vis-à-vis the existing institutional constraints (some of which have been mentioned already), investment in requisite technological options such as the on-site installation of state of the art tracking and remote data transmission devices could be beneficial in ensuring effective monitoring and collation of real-time data on operations of various petrol and gas filling stations to ensure they are in compliance with stipulated operational guidelines.

Additionally, the EPA could leverage on the technological packages like 3D Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Environmental Monitoring software to quickly detect and/ or predict potential leakages and explosive events occasioned by faulty pipelines and delivery systems via geo-reference data for prompt and appropriate action.

In the case of the operators of these petrol and gas filling stations, the establishment and scheduled maintenance of early detection/ warning systems (including as gas leakage detection, fire alarm systems, automatic overfill protection systems for gasoline storage tanks) and the inspection of pipelines and delivery systems to ensure that they are always functional.

Regular professional/ technical training of the staff at petrol and gas filling station should be mandatory to ensure that they are fully abreast of the health and safety procedures and on-site emergency features to improve on-site safety practice.  Further to that, the creation of rapid district response outlets remains pivotal in ensuring the dissemination of information in real time to the relevant authorities for appropriate action in the event of gas leakage and/ or fire outbreak.

Finally, environmental education and sensitization of the general public remain critical in raising the public consciousness with respect to reactionary strategies and health and safety procedures in the event of fire outbreak or gas leakage.  The various media platform could also champion this cause by the creation of environmental awareness segment (synonymous to the wide media broadcast on the environmental implications of the galamsey menace) for the dissemination of relevant information on the subject matter.

Whilst the foregoing is by no means exhaustive, we believe that the proactive implementation of these policy prescriptions as part of holistic and coordinated approach (that brings together all the relevant institutional and non-stakeholders) would be far-reaching in effectively addressing the recurring gas explosions in Ghana.

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By: Dr Festus Asaaga/Environmental Policy Specialist – Environmental Change Institute, Oxford University, UK

Green-Leaf Consultants, UK, Ghana

The post Solutions to recurring gas explosions; beyond the blame game [Article] appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Take Spintex Road into consideration, it was a complete bush some years ago but now a major spot in Accra. Look at Accra-Tema motorway for instance, it used to be outside of town, but now we have buildings all around motorway.

Again, if you look at the trend in Ghana, you will see that once a filling station is set up anywhere, that place becomes a place that all other people want to do their small scale businesses. This is because the location becomes busy to enhance their business activities. So it’s not actually about the locations.

Technically, here in Ghana, unlike in the advanced countries, the owners of the filing stations (OMCs and mostly Dealers) have failed to put in place all necessary safety mechanisms.

1) Firstly, OMCs and their Dealers do not employ technical people (trained personnel) to run their stations because their profit margins are relatively too small for them to pay professionals to do the work.

Meanwhile, fuel stations are considered hazardous everywhere in the world and so we expect people with Health, Safety, Security and Environment (HSSE) backgrounds to lead operations at the stations.

This is not the case in Ghana! Running of fuel and gas stations in Ghana are left for untrained, virtually uneducated and inexperienced people, just for very little wages. This is the first thing to change and not the location!

2) Most of the fuel stations lack:
i) Smoke/Fire Detectors
ii) Gas Detectors
iii) Danger Alarm Systems
iv) Hazard Symbols and Warning Signs etc
This is another thing that has to change and not necessarily the location of the fuel stations.

3) No adherence to Dangerous Substances Regulations. This has to stop too! OMCs and their Dealers must uphold international industry best practices such as:
i) Storage tanks, dispensers and pumps must be adequately maintained and monitored
ii) Efficient wet stock management procedures must be used
iii) Identify hazardous areas and control all sources of ignition
iv) Prevention and dealing with any spillages during discharge
v) Putting off of engines of tankers during discharge
vi) Putting off of engines of all vehicles purchasing fuel at the stations
vii)Checking of weather conditions before discharge

In order to enable the OMCs and their Dealers to adhere to all the above, the NPA has to:

1) Rather reduce the number of fuel stations required to qualify for an OMC licence. NPA should concentrate more on the technical ability of the companies that apply for the licence. (Just as a pharmacy licence is issued only when there’s a trained pharmacist, same can be replicated here)
2) NPA has to reduce the tax components in the price build-up in order to increase the Marketer’s margin and the Dealer’s margin. This will make it possible for the OMCs to spend more money on maintainance and compliance. NPA can better and boldly sanction recalcitrant companies.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),  has to continuously inspect all fuel and gas stations periodically in order to advise and direct operations as much as possible.

As a country, when we do all these, explosions will be reduced drastically. Setting up of fuel stations outside of towns or cities does not in itself take out explosions.

Looking at LPG (cooking Gas), what we need now is “Bottled Gas”. This means, the LPG marketers will have to fill their customised cylinders at their highly regulated depots and in turn distribute the already filled cylinders to the public. Once you bring your empty cylinder, you take a filled cylinder home.

This is what is done in most other countries where they don’t use pipe gas or depend heavily on electricity for cooking purposes.

Take a look at fuel stations below in the heart of mega cities in the US, UK and Dubai.

Thank you!

By: Ellis Prince Antsroe
(CEO, Antlis Oil & Gas)

The post Siting fuel stations outside cities not solution to explosions [Article] appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

This revelation was made on the Citi Breakfast Show on Tuesday, by consultant plastic surgeon and Director of the National Reconstructive Plastic Surgery and Burns Center at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Dr. Opoku-Ware Ampomah.

He noted that, burns from gas explosions account for about 44% of deaths recorded at the burns centre.

[contextly_sidebar id=”mne9uRoEj6yMz5t5t3mCsB1ImGtbEBwb”]“Most of the burns are domestic. I’d say about 80 percent are domestic. Occasionally, we have a bit where there is mass casualty situation. About 35 to 40 percent of the fuel burns admissions are from petroleum and gas explosions. So they account for a significant junk of the burns cases that we receive. And because of the severity of the injuries that they get, they account for over 44% of the death from burns annually,” he noted.

Dr. Ampomah made the revelation on the back of fuel explosions recorded nationwide with the recent one being the gas explosion that occurred last Saturday at Atomic junction near the University of Ghana in Accra.

In that explosion, seven people perished, while 132 others suffered various degrees of injury.

Over 30 people have died since 2014 due to gas explosions.

NHIS pays GHc1, 000 out of GHc30, 000 spent on burns patients

Dr. Ampomah also disclosed that, burns patients spend an average of GHc30, 000, but the country’s National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) covers only GHc1, 000.

He said a lot more burns patients die because they are unable to pay for such charges.

“When somebody sustains about 30 or 40 percent, by the time they leave the hospital, they would have spent not less than GHc30, 000 on their treatment, and this is the acute treatment alone – I’m talking of the immediate care to get them discharged from the hospital… And at the moment, the health insurance scheme only provides just about a GHc1, 000 per burns patient.”

“So if you have somebody with just 30% burns who needs an average of about GHc30, 000 in an acute state, and health insurance is providing only GHc1, 000 for the treatment, then you can imagine the kind of difficulty the person will go through,” he noted.

The plastic surgeon explained that, although some philanthropists subsidize the amount, Dr. Ampomah noted that, the patients still struggle to bear the cost.

“Most of the time we have to find a way of getting benevolent people to subsidize the treatment of some of these patients, and that also adds to the mortality because there are many patients who cannot just afford the treatment that is required,” he added.

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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

The post 40% burns cases at Korle Bu are from gas explosions – Surgeon appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

In a statement, the Centre said such measures would be “important to ensure that another explosion is not in the loom.”

[contextly_sidebar id=”CbiTg5I4fhWVrwiopmEZF0VRANvtpnzC”]ACEP also advised that the technical audit be conducted by an independent body “to ensure that those found not to be compliant with safety standards are closed, and their further existence carefully assessed.”

“Product stations that fail to comply with safety standards must be made to compensate all affected persons and have their licenses revoked to incentivize compliance within the industry,” ACEP suggested.

The aftermath of explosions like the one at Atomic Junction, is followed by an outpouring of grief and a string of assurances from the government.

“It is about time we take a second look at the siting of gas stations in our country, and ensure the strict enforcement of, and adherence to safety regulations, so as to forestall the occurrence of any more of such avoidable incidents,” President Nana Akufo-Addo said in December 2016 after the last major gas explosion at Labadi.

His government is again assuring of policy decisions to end similar gas explosions once and for all, by enforcing safety regulations after the Atomic explosion that has claimed seven lives so far, and injured 132 others.

‘No more business-as-usual’

But ACEP has stressed that it wants to see a shift from the government’s “business-as-usual responses to a comprehensive action that deals with a system that enables the unfortunate to continue to occur.”

It attributed these massive accidents to the “failure of institutions who have the mandate to check, monitor, and sanction the distribution of petroleum products in the downstream sector…”

Thus efforts to solve these failings can be reached “by commissioning an independent examination of the regulatory regime for an objective solution thereto,” the Centre noted.

Beyond this, stiffer sanctions have to be slapped on the owners of petroleum products stations who violate safety standards.

“The sanctions must include possible incarceration of the owners of the service stations if negligence can be attributed to them,” ACEP said.

ACEP’s full statement can be viewed here

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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post No more ‘business-as-usual’ after explosion – ACEP to gov’t appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

This came to light when the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Nii Armah Ashitey recently paid a working visit to some renowned vocational and training institutions in the United States of America at the invitation of U.S. Department of Labor for a programme on Child Labor.

The Institutions the Minister visited included; Genesee Valley Educational Partnership in Mount Morris, SUNY Geneseo, American Rock Salt, Once Again Nut Butter and Noyes Health.

He also visited the renowned Edison Tech and Munroe Community College respectively.

Mr. Armah Ashitey said he is hopeful that the American institutions would share ideas with their Ghanaian counterparts on how to develop workforce infrastructure in Ghana, adding that, possible partnerships will be the way to go.

“It is amazing when you come to realize what goes on between industry and education,” he said. “If education is the key to [economic] development, then technical and vocational training is a must to develop in the world of the workforce.”

He noted that vocational and technical training “can open a lot more doors than just education. There is a mismatch between academics and the world of work that has to be breach.”

According to the sector Minister, the President, John Mahama is seeking to reposition the country’s economy to one with a strong manufacturing base that sells value-added products abroad and to also create its own demand for made-in-Ghana products.

This is to reduce imports and provide more jobs, especially for youth adding that, it is therefore imperative to place high premium on vocational and technical training.

Mr. Ashitey said the Ministry of Employment and Labor Relations is pushing for a strong partnership between Edison Tech, which is a highly respected technical and Training Institution and local institutions such as the NVTI, Integrated Community Centre for Employable Skills (ICCESS) and Opportunities Industrialization Centers Ghana OIC Ghana.

The Minister is also advocating for a partnership between the Accra Polytechnic and Suny Geneseo where ideas on manufacturing and other technical issues could be shared and transferred.

Other career focused areas at the heart of the partnership include, Agriculture and Natural Resources, Automotive Technology, Computer Technology, Construction/Carpentry, Culinary Arts/Restaurant Management Services, Engineering and Design, Graphic Communication Technologies and Health Science.

Such partnership will also include drawing up a curriculum for special education that will ensure the disabled and other disadvantaged people fit in society and not live their lives on the streets.

By: Afiba Anyanzua Anyanzu/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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