NPA taking measures to track fuel station integrity – CEO
Mr Moses Asaga, the Chief Executive Officer of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), says NPA has put in place stringent measures to effectively monitor, enforce, and tighten the relevant regulations on the establishment of filling stations in communities.
Mr Asaga said new technological equipment had also been installed to track the integrity of fuel stations in Ghana.
Addressing a news conference jointly organised by the NPA, the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) and the Adabraka Local Council of Churches in Accra Mr Asaga said: “All applicants who want to put up a filling station need to fulfil certain conditions before one could acquire a license.”
The News conference was to discuss the interventions put in place to prevent the recurrence of last year’s June 3 flood and fire disaster, which claimed the lives of more than 150 people in Accra,
Most of the people were burnt to death following the explosion of a leaking fuel storage facility at the Goil Filling Station at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle.
Others died in the floods at several parts of the national capital, following a record downpour.
Mr Asaga said the Municipal, Metropolitan and District Assemblies (MMDAs) had been cautioned not to endorse any document of anyone seeking to construct a filling station in their jurisdictions.
“We need the support of all the MMDAs to ensure that applicants for filling stations meet the requirements,” he said.
Mr Asaga said the NPA had refurbished and installed modern equipment at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital Burns Unit at the cost of GH¢1 million as part of their interventions towards saving patients with burns.
He said all monies received during the celebration of the NPA’s 10th Anniversary activities were used for the victims.
Dr Alfred Oko Vanderpuije, the Accra Metropolitan Chief Executive, urged the Sub-Metropolitan Assemblies under the AMA to intensify their efforts at monitoring sanitary conditions within the communities to avert the re-occurrence of the disaster.
He outlined activities to commemorate the Flood Disaster, which includes a church service at the Ernest Bruce Methodist Church, on Friday, June 3, 2016.
There would also be unveiling of a tomb stone with names of all the 160 victims written on it with a wreath laying ceremony after the church service.
Dr Vanderpuije said so far 81 bereaved families had been supported with GH¢10,000.
He said the AMA would remove all obstacles hindering the progress of Accra to ensure that people do not build on water ways.
Source: GNA