GNPC Jomoro Operations illegal-EPA

Officials at the Environmental Protection Agency of Ghana (EPA), the body mandated under the law to ensure environmentally sound and efficient use of both renewable and nonrenewable resources in the country have described activities of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) in Jomoro district as unlawful.
The GNPC is currently seeking to acquire lands in the Jomoro District of the Western Region to establish three projects that are expected to bring development into various sectors of the economy.
Even before they would be granted the environmental license to enter into the land, the nation’s lead exploratory company went into the land they claimed to be just 24 Square kilometers and started cutting down coconut trees and rubber plantations of the indigenes.
However, reliable sources at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have told The Lead that whatever the GNPC is doing in the land currently is illegal since the environmental license had not yet been granted.
According to the sources, GNPC had just recently informed the EPA they had found a suitable location for the three projects they intend to embark upon, once Ghana starts pumping oil by the end of 2010.
The three projects according to the Corporation are a gas plant, a petrochemical plant, possibly an oil refinery and a fertilizer plant.
All three projects are highly hazardous to both ecology and human life, and so would need to follow strict environmental regulations if life and ecology must be protected.
There must first of all be reconnaissance carried out to identify the suitable places, and “In recognizance, you don’t have to put even a spoon in the soil,” one of the sources told this paper, adding that the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process is a project and location specific.
The reconnaissance is then followed by scoping, baseline studies, baseline report and public hearing before the EPA can make a decision whether to grant permit for the project or not.
The GNPC admitted to this paper that it was just in the process of identifying the suitable location for the project, and in the process, people’s coconut trees and rubber plantations suffered as a result of the company’s activities.
Victor Sunu-Atta of GNPC explained that the issue had become an egg-and-chicken affair, since they needed to survey the land to know whether it was suitable for the project before bringing EPA into the picture.
But our EPA sources insist, GNPC “cannot enter the land before all the EIA process is completed”.
“The scoping process is carried out by the company with the community to identify the key issues on the ground,” the EPA official explained, adding that these key issues then become the terms of reference for the Environmental Impact Assessment for the project.
In scoping, there are identified areas that need to be preserved, for example water courses, human settlements, farms, forest reserves, cemeteries and many more, and this also depends on the activity intended for the place which include mining, oil exploration, chemical and gas plants.
The next activity to be carried out is the baseline survey, then the baseline report compiled by the company.
After this, a public hearing is done where the company discloses to the community, and other stakeholders, such as their funders, Civil Society Organisations and government represented by the EPA its findings.
These findings usually include, as per the company’s assessment, all that would be affected by its activities and the mitigating measures taken by the company to ensure there is minimum environmental impact
This gives stakeholders the opportunity to scrutinize the programs and see where it will or will not be advisable for the community.
“It is after a company is able to prove that their intended project would not adversely affect the community in terms of livelihoods, live property, water bodies, forest reserves and so on that the EPA allows them to enter into the land.
“So without these activities, how are farmers whose coconut and rubber plantations have suffered in the hands of GNPC going to be treated?” one wonders.
Source: The Lead(Korku Devitor& Napo Ali Fusseini)