Emmanuel Appoh
The
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced that it will soon begin a daily
broadcast of air quality in the Accra metropolis.
The
move, according to EPA, is in line with activities to make urban centres free
of air pollution.
The
Chief Programme Officer of the environmental quality department of the EPA,
Emmanuel Appoh, who disclosed this to journalists, said a memorandum of
understanding (MoU) had been signed between the agency and the World Bank for
the daily broadcast of air quality to take off smoothly.
“The
low cost air monitors that will be positioned in various areas of the city to
monitor the air quality will be in the country by May and the project will
start in June 2020,” he disclosed.
Mr.
Appoh was speaking at a media sensitization workshop on improved air quality
and health in Accra organized by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), with
support from the World Health Organization (WHO), as part of the Urban Health
Initiative (UHI).
He
said Ghana has an annual mean concentration of 31.1 ug/m3 of
particle matter of air pollutants compared with the WHO annual recommended
guideline of 10 ug/m3.
In
Ghana, the WHO estimates that 28,000 people die annually as a result of air
pollution related diseases. The urban health initiative, therefore, aims to
reduce death and diseases caused by air and climate pollutants and also to help
cities reap the benefits of policies and measures that tackle air and climate pollution.
Comfort
M. Kugblenu, Deputy Director of Nursing Services (DDNS) of the Public Health
Division of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), said diseases resulting from
pollution were estimated to cost Ghana between $226 million and $3000 million
in 2015 due to lost productivity.
She
said the impact of air pollution also affects children even those unborn when
they are exposed to unsafe levels of pollution.
Mr.
Gordon Dakuu, explaining the UHI, said it is to equip the sector with the
capacity and tools to demonstrate to the public and decision-makers the full
range of health and climate benefits that can be achieved from implementing
local emission reduction policies and strategies.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri & Mary Asieduwaa
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