Ghana now has air quality standards – EPA

Ghana, now has an air quality standard and regulations have been on-going says the head of the Environmental Quality Department at the Environmental Protection Agency EPA, Emmanuel Appoh.

The Standards, according to Appoh, are to regulate the environment and also protect the public health from air pollution, motor vehicle emissions, amongst others.

Speaking to the media at the air quality presentation by Columbia University researcher Daniel Westervelt, Emmanuel Appoh said Ghana now has air quality standards, quality management and communication plans for improved quality.

“As you know, Ghana now has air quality standards, that have been published and regulations is ongoing. We also have the communication plan for the greater Accra region.”

“Ghana here though not the whole country we have monitors in Accra. About 15 of them and also 15 low cost sensors. The ultimate goal is to calibrate the low cots sensors with the new ones that we are going to get. Then we will deploy them to areas that we do not have”, he indicated.

He said EPA was currently developing regulations on motor vehicle emissions, ambient air quality and point source/stack emissions, effluent discharges into the environment.

Although environmental challenges are identified as a major developmental concern in Ghana, he noted that media attention to and reportage on the issues will bring a great result.

"There seems to be a disconnect among scientists working on environmental issues, the media and journalists, have the responsibility of communicating those issues to the public, and the public whose day to day activities impact on or are impacted by the environment," he said.