Ministry presents gas cylinders to four assemblies
The Ministry of Petroleum has presented 8,000 gas cylinders, cooking stoves and their accessories to four assemblies in the Upper East Region.
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The Bolgatanga Municipal, Bongo, Nabdam and Binduri assemblies each received 2,000 gas cylinders, stoves and their accessories to be distributed to residents within communities of the respective assemblies.
It formed part of the Ministry of Petroleum Rural Liquefied Petroleum Gas Promotion Programme.
Fuel wood
Launching the programme at Sumbrungu, a suburb of Bolgatanga, the Director of Petroleum at the Ministry of Petroleum, Mr Lawrence Apaalse, said the goal of the Rural LPG Promotion Programme was to address the challenges associated with the used of solid fuel.
He mentioned some of the challenges as reversing the detrimental effects of the continuous burning of more than 13 million tons of firewood annually, reducing respiratory diseases acquired from smoke from firewood and saving mothers and children from the drudgery and dangers of fetching firewood.
"We expect to improve and increase access to LPG in rural areas from the three per cent in 2012 to 50 per cent by 2020," he emphasised.
Under the programme, Mr Apaalse said, the government was distributing free cylinders, cooking stoves and related accessories to beneficiaries in low access and low income areas in districts across the country.
Days of shortage of gas over
To make the promotion meaningful and ensure that the beneficiary districts had constant supply of LPG, Mr Apaalse said the ministry was partnering with LPG Marketing and local dealers to facilitate the setting up of mini-refill plants in these districts.
"We, therefore, urge local dealers and businessmen to take advantage of business opportunities provided and expand the LPG business by setting up mini-refill outlets in very remote areas to ensure constant flow of gas," he said.
Tree planting
The Deputy Upper East Regional Minister, Mr Daniel Syme, said climate change was inevitable and urged the chiefs, assembly members and opinion leaders to champion tree planting in their jurisdictions to prevent the creeping desertification from engulfing the region.