Editorial by Ghanaian Times: Curb air pollution to boost public health

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has called for concerted efforts among stakeholders to curb the increasing levels of air pollution in the Greater Accra Region to protect public health.

Unfortunately, the EPA has not been specific as to who these stakeholders are, but the Ghanaian Times can guess some of them, using information on the causes, management, and regulation of air pollution.

Generally, air pollution is caused by solid and liquid par­ticles and certain gases that are suspended in the air.

These particles (aerosols) and gases can come from food joints, vehicle truck exhaust, factories, dust, pollen, mold spores, volca­noes, and wildfires.

In Ghana and, for that matter, the Greater Accra Region, poor air quality is mainly caused by cook­ing using wood and charcoal, improper disposal of both solid and liquid waste, road transport, slash-and-burn methods of farm­ing, open waste burning, energy generation, accidental fires, and industry.

Thus, the stakeholders include regulators like EPA itself, the Metropolitan Municipal and District Assemblies (MMAs); companies and individuals that own vehicles; farmers, factories, markets, chop bars, and restau­rant operators, as well as mem­bers of the general public; and waste management companies like Zoomlion.

In Accra, sometimes one won­ders why refuse gathered at the markets and elsewhere are left to stink before it is collected.

Besides, there are places in Accra such as Achimota Old Station, precisely the EPP Book­shop area, which stinks because food vendors there pour liquid and solid wastes into the gutters around.

Once the stakeholders are identified, it becomes easier to prompt them to be careful with and about their activities, actions, and inaction which pollute the air such as refusing to fix faulty exhausts that emit thick smoke into the atmosphere.

This reminds us of the police too being stakeholders in dealing with air pollution, particularly in road transport.

Sometimes, some stakeholders discount certain acts as insignifi­cant but at the end of it all, their effects are serious health risks.

Think of residents who throw refuse, even food leftovers, rotten protein products, and dead animals, into drains.

Since air pollution continues to fuel health challenges, there is re­ally the need for the EPA and the MMDAs to bring in the required interventions.

Such interventions, obvious­ly, are meant to ensure that people breathe in quality air.

Therefore, the call by the EPA for air quality management plans should be taken seriously by all those the Ghanaian Times would describe as frontline stakeholders – the Government and its agencies like the EPA, the MMDAs, and the Public Health Department of the Ghana Health Service.

Luckily, there is the Breathe Accra initiative and its Clean Air Fund (CAF) to support the 15 Metropolitan and Municipal Assemblies in Accra to develop Air Quality Action Plans.

The Breathe Accra initiative is a project aimed at empower­ing communities in the Greater Accra Region to combat air pol­lution and climate emission.

It is expected that through air quality management activities, the MMDAs would be able to increase awareness, knowledge, and understanding of air quality among decision-makers, stake­holders, and members of the public to help rein in air pollution in the Greater Accra Region.

Hopefully, the Breathe Accra initiative will be a suc­cess that can be replicated in other regions where air pollution is a serious problem.