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A few days after the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ordered the closure of two steel plants – United Steel and Rider Steel – for failing to comply with Ghana's environmental safety regulations, only one, Rider Steel, shaped.
A visit to the United Steel factory last Thursday showed that factory workers were still stationed and that smoke emissions were as bad as previous controls performed by JoyBusiness.
T. Patnaik, Managing Director of Rider Steel, told JoyBusiness: "We have stopped production and are working hard to comply with EPA regulations."
According to him, "Rider Steel is confident to solve all challenges by August."
On July 1, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ordered the closure of the two steel plants – United Steel and Rider Steel – for failing to comply with Ghana's environmental safety regulations.
This order followed JoyBusiness surveys on how smoke emissions from some steel mills located in the free zone enclave not only polluted the atmosphere, but also put the lives of their workers in danger.
Ebenezer K. Appah-Sampong, deputy executive director of the EPA, told JoyBusiness that a working group had been deployed to the site to ensure the closure of both steel factories.
"According to the procedures to follow when you encounter such problems of non-compliance, you engage them after your investigations, then you agree on a certain roadmap to ensure its final resolution.Our files indicate that we have exhausted this process and that we do not expect more than we wrote on July 1, the two companies decided to end their activities and then solve the problem before allowing them to function, "he said.
When visiting iron factories at the Enclave of Tema free zones, smoke is formed.
The thick smoke darkens the environment and prevents you from seeing or breathing. Some workers at MND Metals Co Ltd, mainly victims of the pollution, complained of respiratory problems.
One of these workers, Felix, recounted how he had "visited the hospital frequently since the beginning of his work". Other workers also claimed that they "coughed up blood" and "felt week after week" after hours of work in such a polluted environment.
Action by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Earlier information gathered at the office of Acting Executive Director of the EPA, John A. Pwamang, indicated that "letters have been sent to manufacturing companies that flout environmental regulations to close or comply."
Health publications have shown that the presence of chemicals, particles or biological compounds in the atmosphere can adversely affect human and animal health and the environment.
Factories and other industrial facilities have been responsible for this pollution since the beginning of the industrial era by burning fuels, carrying out chemical processes and releasing dust and other particles, and Ghana is no exception.
Ghana is ranked 124 on the 2018 Environmental Performance Index (EPI), which ranks 180 countries in terms of environmental health and ecosystem vitality. This means that the country's performance in environmental protection has been poor.
The bad quality of the air kills people. Globally, poor outdoor air has caused an estimated 4.2 million premature deaths in 2016, about 90% of which are in low- and middle-income countries such as Ghana. According to the World Health Organization (WHO).
In Ghana, WHO estimates that air pollution from all sources caused approximately 28,000 deaths in 2016, of which more than 4,000 were children under 16 years of age.
The WHO says that in the Greater Accra region alone, outdoor pollution caused about 2,000 deaths in 2017.
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