The Volta River Authority, as part of efforts to protect its workers and impacted communities, has pursued industry best practices in Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) through ISO certifications and benchmarking performances.

The Authority has continuously set OHS performance targets, provides resources to meet the targets, and consistently monitored and evaluated the OHS performances of the various teams and functions.

This was in a speech read on behalf of Mr Emmanuel Antwi-Darkwa, the Chief Executive of VRA in Accra, at its annual safety awareness day in Accra.

It was on the theme: “Improving Our Health and Safety Culture for Our Business Sustainability”, and with the slogan: “A Safer You is a Safer Me”.

He said the theme was timely due to the Authority’s commitment to championing excellence and providing sustainable solutions to its business.

The day’s purpose, the Chief Executive said, was to enhance safety performance and staff awareness of emerging global safety trends and specific safety elements about the operations of the Authority.

Mr Antwi-Darkwa stated that promoting a positive safety culture could not be exchanged for anything, but only be accomplished by identifying, mitigating, and reviewing hazards associated with occupational health and safety through renewed methodologies and practices.

He commended the existing risk assessments, routine inspections, and compliance audits put in place by the Authority, encouraging all levels of leadership to deepen adherence to the existing safety work processes.

“In recent times, the concept of building a positive safety culture has gained momentum, particularly in high-risk industries like ours, due to the correlation between workers’ attitudes and workplace incidents,” he said.

He said the “Authority will continue to encourage staff participation in safety meetings and compliance with the safety policy as important criteria to achieve the annual employee key performance objective and our business sustainability plan.”

Dr Justice Mensah, a lecturer at University of Ghana Business School, called for an effective health and safety policy for the country.

He urged organizations to have in place a safety culture policy with realistic and feasible practices to deal with any work hazards.

Dr Mensah encouraged organizations to prioritize health and safety issues because it enhanced the enthusiasm of employees and helped them deliver higher productivity.

Statistics show that an estimated 160,000 fatalities, accidents, and illnesses at work were reported in Ghana between 2020 and 2021.

Awards were presented to operational and non-operational branches of the Authority, that performed creditably well in their work areas.