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Waste disposal by garages endangers public health

Mr Emmanuel Salu (right), Director in charge of Environmental Education at EPA, addressing the participants at the maiden workshop on garage waste management in Accra. Picture: Samuel Adjei-Boateng.The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has warned that members of the public could be exposed to danger as a result of the manner most garages dispose of waste in their operations.

According to the EPA, the disposal of solid and liquid waste by these mechanics and fitting shop operators posed a major health hazard to the environment, as these pollutants enter water courses or drains, causing soil and groundwater pollution, among others.

At a median meeting to collate inputs from some small, medium and large garage operators from Accra and Tema, the Deputy Executive Director of the EPA, Mr Samuel Anku, said the improper disposal and management of fuel waste and used car parts had become a source of major concern to the agency.

Although there are bye-laws on pollution, their enforcement has become a major challenge to the local authorities, including the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) and to this end, the EPA was working together with some garage owners and operators to draft guidelines on how they can appropriately dispose of the waste they generate.

Mr Anku said the EPA Act, 1994 (Act 490) mandated the agency to guide development to prevent and, as far as possible, eliminate toxic pollution and actions that lowered the quality of life of people.

The Director in charge of Environmental Education at the EPA, Mr Emmanuel Salu, who made a presentation on, “The status of waste management in small garages”, said the agency had, for a long time, been concentrating its monitoring activities on large garages, a situation which had left the small and medium ones to have a field day.

According to him, a research conducted by the EPA on four small garages in Accra and Tema showed that most of the small-scale garages operated in residential areas, particularly in densely populated areas, and there was the need for the operators to understand the environmental risks and responsibilities of automobile servicing and repairs and take the necessary actions to improve the environmental management of their operations.

Speaking on “Garage waste management”, Mr John Tettey of the EPA, said the agency expected that best practices would be brought to bear on the manner in which operators of garages managed the waste they generated.

The Director in charge of Chemical Control and Management at the EPA, Mr John Pwamang, who chaired the function, said the EPA would work at ensuring that people complied with safety standards in the country.

By Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho/Daily Graphic/Ghana

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