The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has closed down Empire Cement Factory Limited under construction at Weija in Accra over environmental concerns and for operating without permit.
The Chinese-owned company is sited on a ramsar site near the Pambros Salt Mining Company against all health and environmental concerns raised by residents of the area and countless cautions by the regulatory agency.
The establishment, which began in 2020, was set up under the guise of the one district, one factory policy to manufacture cement papers but ended up as a cement factory.
A response team from the EPA stormed the company and picked up about four Chinese nationals in charge of the factory.
The directive for the company to shut down was met by agitations and curses from workers who were busy working at the site when the EPA went there with a team of police officers.
They were vehemently opposed to the move by the regulator citing lack of jobs and high cost of living. But their concerns fell on deaf ears as the EPA ordered them to move out and closed the facility.
A member of the security intelligence at the EPA, Emmanuel Opoku, who led the team, noted that management of the factory had failed to comply with several orders from the agency.
