President of the McCarthy Hill Residents Association, Mr. Eddie Quaynor says will have no option than to go to court to secure an injunction against the construction of a cement factory in the area if authorities do not ensure its closure.
Mr. Quaynor explained that several petitions sent to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to have the project halted yielded no positive results.
The McCarthy Hill Residents Association recently held a press conference to protest against the siting of the cement at South McCarthy Hill along the main road leading to Weija in the Greater Accra Region.
Mr. Quaynor said they will utilize all legal means to ensure the factory does not see the light of day as its operation will be too hazardous to the health and well-being of residents at McCarthy Hill, Tetegu, Mallam, Gbawe and Weija.
“We want to have a peaceful and serene environment, free of constant cement dust particles in the air as the wind direction blows over the cement factory area in the direction of the catchment areas mentioned.”
Mr. Quaynor observed that even more worrying is the fact that the site of the cement factory is next to Panbros Salt Industries Ltd., the oldest and largest wholly-Ghanaian owned salt company that produces quality salt for the whole country and the West African sub-region.
Mr. Quaynor said the Environmental Protection Agency had confirmed in its correspondence to that edible salt and a cement factory do not mix and that the two land-uses were mutually exclusive and must be completely separated.
He said the factory owners, Empire Cement Limited, had disregarded several warnings from the EPA to cease operations and instead were working day and night to speed up the construction of the factory and that they had installed three aluminium silos so far and were excavating and filling up the low-lying areas.
He said McCarthy Hill residents supported the one district, one factory concept and would welcome the creation of jobs in Ghana, and good initiatives for building factories according to well-thought-out land-use planning and law.
He added that proper land-use planning would ensure that the health and safety of the residents were protected.
He said their major concern was that the factory was being built even though there was no preliminary approval from EPA, the statutory body in charge of assessing, granting approval, and monitoring such factories that impact the environment negatively.
Mr. Quaynor said cement factories by their nature were classified under heavy industry as they generated heavy-duty air pollution that required siting in heavy industrial area, away from heavily populated or densely residential areas.
The President said the above production processes pointed to heavy industry which must be in a heavy industrial zone, away from the densely populated residential areas mentioned.
Mr. Quaynor said the cement particles, which resulted from bagging 40,000 metric tons of cement per month, was a major environmental concern to the health of residents at McCarthy Hill and its environs.
Meanwhile, earlier allegations raised by Panbros Salt Industries Limited over the project was rejected by Empire Cement Limited.
Officials of the Panbros Salt factory had among other things alleged that Empire Cement Limited had forcibly taken part of their legally acquired concession for the cement project.
But a statement signed by Archibold Ato Paitoo, owner of the Empire Cement Limited, insisted that the land in question was given to the company by the allodia owners of the land.
“It is recalled that the James Town Stool leased a 5-acre land to me on 1st March 2014, for industrial purpose. The land was specifically leased by the late Nii Kojo Ababio V, James Town Mantse and Paramount Chief of Ngleshie Alata Traditional Area James Town, Accra with the concurrence of his elders. I also performed the necessary rites and made consideration in this regard.”
Mr. Paitoo also rejected claims that a cement factory and a salt factory cannot operate on the same land.
“With regard to the location of the cement factory, it is not true that a company cannot be sited near a salt mining company. Thanks to technology, the Empire Cement Ltd would operate with state-of-the-art equipment which are environmentally friendly,” he added.