It is normal to have filling stations in communities - EPA

Togbe Akliku Ahorney, the Volta Regional Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says it is normal to have filling stations in communities.

He said their location in communities was to make their services accessible to the public and not tenable to relocate them.

Togbe Ahorney was speaking to the Ghana News Agency in an interview following the fire incident at the Goil Filling Station at Kwame Nkrumah Circle, which reportedly killed 150 people on Wednesday June 3.

Some residents in Ho for a year and over have been blaming the EPA for giving certification for fuel filling stations to be sited in communities and near public places, such as hospitals.

Togbe Ahorney said the Kwame Nkrumah Circle incident was "purely an accident" and could not be used to argue for the relocation of fuel filling stations.

Togbe Ahorney said the stations were supposed to operate with disaster mitigating equipment such as fire extinguishers and insisted it was unnecessary to relocate them.

He said it was time the populace appreciated "hazard points and try to live with them."

On the celebration of the World Environment Day, Togbe Ahorney urged Municipal and District Assemblies in the Region to ensure that sand weaning for building projects was done sustainably in their districts.

He said sand weaning remained the only challenge degrading the environment.