The National Petroleum Authority (NPA) embarked on an exercise to promote the use of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) in the Upper East Region.
The nationwide campaign, known as ‘Wo wϽ Gas,” sensitised traders in the Bolgatanga market to the need to adopt LPG as an alternative source of fuel to the felling of trees for charcoal and firewood.
The NPA Communications Manager, Mr. Mohammed Abdul-Kudus, said the authority had observed that the Upper East Region is among the eight out of the 16 regions that are low-using areas of LPG. The rest of these regions are North East, Upper West, Northern, Savannah, Bono, Ahafo, and Bono East regions.
Mr Abdul-Kudus said the ambitious campaign of the NPA is to have a 50 percent penetration of people using LPG by 2030 as an alternative source of fuel, either for domestic or commercial purposes, to reduce the threat to the environment.
“If we are able to get people to move away from firewood and charcoal use, first of all, we are going to reduce the incidence of related respiratory diseases. Two, we will be able to do some work in the front of our afforestation drive. The popular adage goes that ‘when the last tree dies, the last man dies’ and that is what we are all trying to avoid,” he added.
Mr Abdul-Kudus while speaking to the media alluded to the fact that LPG may be expensive for rural folks to purchase, “studies have shown that it is more cheaper to use LPG than to use charcoal or firewood”
He said users of charcoal or firewood in the long run may be risking their lives to diseases they could have avoided if they were using LPG.
He mentioned that the Chief Executive Officer of the NPA, Dr Mustapha Abdul-Hamid indicated that his outfit has put a position paper before cabinet seeking to have some of the taxes or levies removed to have a further drop in the price of LPG.
Mrs Eunice Budu Nyarko, the Consumer Services Manager of the National Petroleum Authority, admonished the public to keep their gas cylinders away from the kitchen to avoid gas-related fires.
“The cylinders are supposed to be replaced after 10 years of use. Also, there should be regular changing of the cylinder hose. It should be changed every two years if it is used for domestic purposes and remember to change it every six months if it is used for commercial purposes”
The Upper East Regional Safety 2IC, ADO1 Bright Awonatey Akobanya, urged the public to turn off their cylinders when not in use. He added that the public can always check the cylinder with the foam solution to ensure that there are no leakages.
The NPA exercise, which was supported by Limehouse, an NGO, saw traders from the Navrongo, Sandema, and Fumbisi markets sensitised to the safe use of LPG.
Source:A1Radioonline.com|101.1Mhz|Joshua Asaah|Ghana
