Concerted efforts needed to curb rising air pollution – EPA

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

The Director of the Environmental Quality Unit at the EPA, Ms. Selina Amoah, said air pollution continued to fuel health challenges and required urgent intervention.

She further highlighted the importance of air quality management plans, noting that pollution sources stem from various sectors.

“Collaboration is essential to manage air quality effectively and achieve the desired outcomes,” she highlighted.

She was speaking at a workshop organized for some Metropolitan Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) in Accra yesterday.

It was organized by PSS Urbania Consult Limited, an environment and research firm which had been engaged by the Clean Air Fund (CAF) in Ghana under the Breathe Accra initiative to support 15 MMDAs in Accra to develop Air Quality Action Plans (AQAPs).

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

Ms. Amoah stated 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 in Accra.

She also cautioned the general public against engaging in acts like open burning, saying it was unlawful and exacerbated the already existing air pollution crisis.

“Many people in one way or another contribute to this menace. We all need to be responsible enough to make sure we are contributing to solutions to curb this menace instead of making the situation more unbearable,” she added.

In his presentation, a representative of PSS Urbania Consult Limited, Dr. Fred Out-Larbi, indicated that Ghana faced significant air quality challenges exceeding the World Health Organization’s (WHO) interim targets.

He mentioned that the health and environmental impacts of air pollution were very profound and necessitated urgent actions.

The mission of the Clean Air Fund, he said, was to support the government’s objective to improve air quality in Ghana in order to meet WHO guidelines by 2040.

He bemoaned that aside from the serious health impacts of air pollution in Ghana, which included severe lung diseases that sometimes led to death, the menace also caused an economic burden to the country.

Touching on the main goals of the Greater Accra Air Quality Management Plan, he mentioned that it would, among others, ensure collaborative governance to effectively promote the implementation of the plans, which include conducting a preliminary scan of hotspots of generic air pollution in the respective assemblies.