Ninety-Six people died in 19 accidents from Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) refilling plants in the country between 2007 and 2015.  

Over the period, 486 people also sustained serious injuries .

Investigations by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has revealed that the tragic incidents were as the result of the lack of proper training for operators along the supply chain (drivers, managers, supervisors and pump attendants) on the safe handling of LPG.

Mr William Hayford-Acquah, acting Director of Field Operations of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),  disclosed these while interacting with journalists on the second day of a three-day capacity building training for 136 workers in the LPG sector in the Volta Region, at Ho on Tuesday.  

“The LPG plant operators received no formal training on the safe handling of LPG but were tasked with the responsibility of manning the plants,” he said.

The training, organised by the EPA was meant to introduce the participants to the safe handling of petroleum products to make them more efficient in responding to their regulatory requirements and equip them with pollution prevention and control methods and systems, among others.  

The participants were taken through emerging issues and best practices in the LPG industry and the compliance with regulations of the sector.  

Mr Hayford-Acquah said that the EPA had taken a firm stance to inject professionalism in the industry and make the operators more efficient.  

In a speech read on his behalf, Mr Henry K. Kokofu, Executive Director of EPA, noted that the growth in the gas sector had come with public concerns over the proliferation of gas services outlets in residential areas.  

He said that EPA in collaboration with other stakeholder institutions initiated the training and certification programme to avert LPG accidents in future.  

He said that the demand for LPG in the country had increased tremendously over the past decades, adding that there were now 3,596 refilling LPG and fuel stations nationwide.  

From Alberto Mario Noretti, Ho