Give us power to bite – EPA
The Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Dr John Kingsley Krugu, says transforming the agency into an authority will strengthen its regulatory functions and prosecutorial powers to “bite better.”
He said the EPA needed to take a strong leadership drive in environmental protection, adding that its regulations would be hinged on the new bill which is at the consideration stage in Parliament.
Dr Krugu indicated this in an interview with the Ghanaian Times after he visited Zeal Environmental Technologies Ltd and ZOIL at Nyankrom, in Shama District of the Western Region, on Thursday.
“If we are able to get the bill passed, the EPA will transition into an authority and all those regulations will kick in, and on the basis of which we can protect the environment. Indeed, that will be of huge significance for us,” he said.
The purpose of the visit was to acquaint himself with waste management facilities in the Western Region and assess their capacity to manage different types of waste, especially e-waste, which has become a very important component in the waste management sector.
Dr Krugu said in other jurisdictions, the EPA boss sits in the cabinet, thus showing the importance of environmental protection.
He argued that the head of an agency had less authority and autonomy compared to that of an authority and believed that the new Act would be a game changer.
Dr Krugustress thatEPA was to assess the industry’s capacity to manage waste from offshore activities and also how waste managers successfully receive waste from the oil and gas platforms.
He expressed satisfaction that industries in Ghana, like Zeal Technologies and ZOIL, were in a position to manage waste.
Dr Krugu explained that the EPA, as the regulator, needed to ensure that the industry satisfies the conditions for how to dispose of the waste “within which we grant you a permit.”
On the complaints that oil and gas players were not sending their waste to waste managers, he noted that, the EPA would conduct further investigations into the veracity of the matter.
He said it was also critical for management to rethink how EPA staff could be stationed on the FPSO platforms so that they could monitor the activities of the oil and gas operations, and effectively protect the environment.
General Manager of Zeal Environmental Technologies, Abdul Ganiyu, suggested that regulations should ensure that offshore waste could be sent to Zeal Environmental Technologies, which has the capacity to treat up to 10 tons of waste per hour.
Director of Zeal Technologies, Mr Kwaku Ennin, spoke about the impressions created by oil companies so that no company in Ghana could manage their waste and thus justified the discharge of their waste overboard.
He indicated that Zeal Technologies had EPA permits, the capacity to provide quality services in order to manage urban waste and regenerative waste from the oil and gas sector, and that investment in equipment could not be “redundant.”
FROM CLEMENT ADZEI BOYE, NYANKROM