To protect lives and property at Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) stations, pump attendants have been sensitised on international best practices, which makes it an offence to employ unskilled persons to work at the pumps.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) seeks to train all LPG pump attendants across the country to enable them to understand all regulatory requirements.  

John Alexis Pwamang, the EPA Executive Director, at the end of the fourth batch of training in the Greater Accra Region, said some of the requirements were the positioning of facilities, car parks, maintaining the right distance between the station and the gas container, and adhering to temperature gauges and safety measures within the vending premises.

“The EPA will not tolerate any company that will go contrary to conditions specified in their licences.

Any company that falls short will be shut down until the required provisions are put in place,” he said.

“We will also certify those we train and have them display their certificates to indicate their participation in our training programmes. After the training it will be a requirement for the renewal of operational licenses.”

Mr Pwamang said the Agency was collaborating with the National Petroleum Authority, the Ghana National Fire Service and the operators in the industry through their national and regional associations to ensure that human errors associated with gas explosions were eliminated.

Mr William Hayfron-Acquah, the EPA Acting Director in charge of Field Operations, said the Agency had scaled up efforts to license pump attendants as part of a national process to inject professionalism into the sector.

He explained that the regime where LPG dealers employed unskilled personnel to operate the gas was over, adding; “attendants must go through Environmental Safety and Best Practices Training (ESBPT)".