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.

Mr 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)".

The ESBPT syllabus is divided into phases, which involves theoretical classroom and practical field training leading to the award of an initial certificate of participation, after which the attendants would be monitored for adherence to best practices.

He said they would again go through another theoretical classroom and practical field training at the end of which they would be licensed to operate as certified professional LPG pump attendants.

He said the training would also target owners, dealers, and station supervisors to ensure that "we adhere to international best practices in our operations in the country."

Mr Hayfron-Acquah said EPA was not only interested in the training but had set up mechanisms to monitor compliance to ensure stakeholders understood the industry functionalities in order to operate efficiently.

He, therefore, called on all actors including regulators, investors, dealers, attendants, and consumers to work together to reduce the hazards associated with the usage of LPG.

The EPA was collaborating with other technical partners such as the Ghana National Fire Service, Ghana LPG Operators Association, Department of Factories Inspectorate and National Petroleum Authority to build a team to help with the training, Mr Hayfron-Acquah said.

He called on the LPG Marketing Companies Association and other stakeholders to ensure full participation in the programme to help protect their investments.