Ghanaian Chronicle (Accra)

THE Programme Officer of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the Western Region, Mr. Kwame Diewuo, has disclosed that the agency's preliminary investigations so far conducted into the operations of the West Africa Gas Pipeline (WAGP) project have confirmed that WAGP operations have led to the pollution of the sea at Aboadze.

Consequently, the agency, he said, would continue to conduct intensive investigations to prove that the WAGP was responsible for the pollution of the sea.

Speaking at the meeting of the chiefs and people of Aboadze over the pollution of the sea, the Programme Officer requested that residents of the affected areas took the samples of their urine and blood to medical laboratories for tests to see if the pollution had affected them.

But the residents rejected the suggestion on the grounds that the management of WAGP rather dispatched medical practitioners to their doorsteps for the tests to be conducted instead of them traveling for the test to be conducted.

The people of Aboadze in the Shama Ahanta East Metropolitan Assembly have recently been experiencing unpleasant smell from the sea. Fish in the sea are also dying, prompting the people to complain. Residents later suspected that the WAGP was the cause of the problem.

The Regional Director of the EPA, Madam Irene Heathcoth, had recently told The Chronicle, in a telephone interview after a two-day inspection tour of the site to gather first hand information, that the cause of the problem was unknown.

But at a public meeting held last Tuesday by the chiefs and elders of Aboadze as a result of the adverse development in the area with the West Africa Gas Pipeline (WAGP) Officer in Charge of Community Development Project for Aboadze, Abuesi and Shama towns, Mr. Kwesi Prempeh, the entire community gave an ultimatum of week to WAGP to identify the possible cause of the problem and make known its findings publicly.

The week ultimatum came after Mr. Kwesi Prempeh had told the people at the meeting that the management of WAGP was unsure whether the strange stench and the mysterious dying of fish in the sea were as a result of their operations. He also told them that WAGP was working closely with the management of EPA to identify the cause of the problem. According to Mr. Prempeh, since WAGP was not the only company operating in the area, it would call on all the stakeholders to assist in finding an immediate solution to the problem.

The Publicity Secretary of Aboadze Youth Association (AYA), Mr. Godwill Arthur Mensah, told The Chronicle in an interview that the community would ask for compensation from WAGP if the company was found to be responsible for the stench and the mysterious dying of the fish in the Sea.