Africa-Press – Gambia. In an attempt to combat risks associated with fire, the environmental impact assessment unit of the National Environment Agency (NEA) on Tuesday organised a capacity building training for its service/patrol station operators on environmental management and emergency response.
Held at NaNA, the training aimed at raising the awareness of service stations operators on health, safety and environmental issues/risks associated with the industry. The training focused on precautionary measures necessary to prevent anticipated risks associated with the industry by enabling implementation of emergency response mechanisms to deal with emergency situations and prevent risk of further impacts amongst others.
It brought together different station operators across the country.
According to official reports, The Gambia is witnessing a proliferation of fuel service stations in mainly highly populated areas which has a delicate risk to health, safety and environmental concerns due to inadequate national capacity to deal with emergency situations.
Lamin BJ Samateh, the senior programme officer of the Environmental Impact Assessment Project described the initiative as vital in minimising the risk of incidents and improving environmental compliances in the petroleum sector.
“We trained our field staff to ensure that they are able to protect the environment without causing any harm to public health. It is evident that petroleum products are highly flammable and because of that they require careful handling,” he said.
He added that this care is required from transportation, storage facility, and all the way to various retail outlets.
“There are a lot of risk factors involved especially considering our roads which are very narrow. The traffic is also so congested in some areas, and these are highly flammable products,” he added.
Omar Sey, the director of technical service network of the National Environment Agency, reiterated the agency’s commitment to sustaining training programmes, noting that building the capacity of station operators is essential to reducing frequent fire incidents.
“We all know that environmental issues are cross-cutting, and as such, it requires holistic approach, or integrated approach in ensuring that their impacts emanating from activities are addressed or mitigated.”
He said the Oil Marketing Companies (OMC) will also benefit from a similar training as one of the most important stakeholders.
For More News And Analysis About Gambia Follow Africa-Press
