NPA moves to avert flooding in Koforidua filling stations

The Authority has put in place short, medium, and long-term measures including the reengineering of the Okumi River storm drain, dredging of the storm drain, halting of further development in the wetland areas, perforation of holes through the walls of the filling stations and regular inspections.

The actions were agreed upon last Tuesday, November 1 by the stakeholders, including the Ghana Highways Authority, the Department of Urban Roads, the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO), and the Ghana National Fire and Rescue Service, after an inspection of three filling stations in Koforidua that were flooded on October 2, 2022.

Okudzeto said the Eastern Regional NPA team did an initial assessment of the filling stations, after which a team of directors and senior officers from Accra also inspected the affected outlets and presented a report to management.

Okudzeto said two of the filling stations, Frimps and Goil, which had met the prescribed requirements had resumed operations and indicated that Vivo Energy would also be allowed to start operations once it passed the tests.

Mohenu said it was an industry practice for retail outlets to check for water in their petroleum products every morning, but it had come to the attention of the Authority that many of them were not complying with that requirement.

Consequently, he said, three weeks ago, the NPA had written letters to Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) stating that henceforth it was mandatory for retail outlets to check for water in their products every morning and record it.

He cautioned that appropriate actions would be taken against retail outlets that would be found to have falsified their recordings.