The front view of the gas plant
Owners and parents of pupils of the Tema Ridge School and Tema International School, both at Community 22 in the Ashaiman Municipality, are living with fear over the siting of gas station.
The schools are battling with the owner of the station, which according to them, poses grave danger to pupils of the two schools, as well as residents.
They said all efforts to compel the owner of the gas station to relocate have proved futile.
The situation has compelled managers of the schools, parents and residents, to send a petition to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), National Petroleum Authority (NPA) and the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) to request for the immediate relocation of the gas station.
According to the petition, the school-children are afraid to go to the park to participate in physical training due to the presence of T-Terkpor Gas Filling Station.
“The said gas plant shares a common fence wall with the two schools, posing grave danger to close to 800 children altogether. This is an extremely dangerous situation that requires urgent governmental intervention, given that we have in our care very young children, some as young as five months. If this situation goes unchecked, we may be setting ourselves up for a national disaster of untold proportion.”
“Some of the kids sometimes complain of the smell of gas while playing on the field so ever since the explosion occurred at Atomic Junction, the school-children have resolved not to play on the field due to the fear of any form of explosion. This is a very grave danger it poses, the reality of the matter is that in the event of an accident, evacuating little children is going to be very difficult,” the joint petition signed by managers of both schools stated.
Some artisans such as welders and mechanics also operate in the vicinity.
The management of the schools stressed further that several appeals to authorities have fallen on deaf ears.
They are again appealing to authorities to act swiftly to save them from any future catastrophe.
According to the Assembly Member for the Niiman Electoral Area, Charles Kissi, Terkpor Gas Station has no permit with the Ashaiman Municipal Assembly and sees no reason why authorities are adamant in closing it down.
He said that “as we speak, the T-Terkpor Gas station has no permit, so we can’t lobby such an organization that poses danger to hundreds of innocent children.”
Meanwhile, some residents, who could not hide their fear, have demanded the immediate suspension of the operation of the gas filling station.
“This is not an industrial area, there are no industries here because all structures here are residential properties and schools except this gas station. There was no stakeholder consultation before the construction began. We do not need a fuel station here,” a resident told DAILY GUIDE.
“We are not happy about what is going on here—this station built here has endanger our lives,” another resident, Frederick Apedoe, angrily said.
From Vincent Kubi, Tema