By Albert Allotey
Accra, May 30, GNA – A five-day capacity building workshop on Air Quality Management Plan is ongoing for over 30 environmental health officers, planning officers and transport officers drawn from Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) in Accra.
It is being supported by Clean Air Fund and facilitated by Dr Sarah Rees, Deputy Executive Officer, Planning – South Coast Air Quality Management District, Los Angeles, USA.
The workshop is the second of training series under the Breathe Accra Project being led by Professor Kofi Amegah of the University of Cape Coast, to fix low-cost sensors to monitor air quality in Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA).
Thirteen MMDAs have signed on to the project including the Accra Metropolitan Assembly.
Madam Selina Amoah, the Acting Director, Environmental Quality Unit of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) made a presentation on the Agency’s air mandate and its Air Quality Management Plan (AQMP).
She said the overall objective of the AQMP was to ensure that the ambient particulate matter in the Greater Accra Region (GAR) complied with the “Ghana Standard (GS 1236:19.”
“The plan has outlined actions to address air pollution and various stakeholders and their roles in the implementation of the actions. The plan is supposed to be revised after evaluating the effectiveness of the measures and information updated to capture emerging issues,” she stated.
Madam Amoah said the next steps to be taken were to expand air quality monitoring network, collect data on household air pollution in the GAR, conduct comprehensive emission inventory (mobile, point, area and biogenic sources) and finalise draft regulations to enforce the standards.
She said major contributors to air pollution from anthropogenic sources in Accra included transport, industry and human settlement (opening burning of electronic/solid waste, use of wood fuels in cooking, among others.)
“Air pollution from natural sources are harmattan and sea salt.”
The Acting Director indicated that the MMDAs are expected to create awareness on air quality issues, enforce existing bye-laws and enactment of new ones to address specific issues relating to air quality, and stop burning at waste management sites.
They are to establish and implement improvement measures to reduce emissions from small and dispersed sources that contribute to air quality for example, grassing or paving unpaved surfaces, paving untarred roads, promoting the use of improve fuels and cookstoves for commercial activities (cooking, and fish smoking).
Others are to promote planting of tress/vegetation, identify and dedicate resources to data generation, especially at the hotspots (open burning, animal skin singeing, among others), collaborate with other stakeholders to address air quality issues, develop plan and dedicate resources to implement roles in AQMP, and collaborate with EPA and other relevant bodies to establish air quality monitoring networks in the country.
Mr Amegah said the Breathe Accra Project was to accelerate air quality improvements in Accra to protect public health and help inspire greater action on air pollution in other African countries.
Its objectives are to ensure openly accessible hyperlocal air quality data in GAMA, while fostering local capacity for monitoring and managing air quality and mounting surveillance for air pollution-related diseases in the metropolis.
“In spite of Accra City having AQMP, which was developed in 2018, the authorities were slow in addressing air quality challenges because of lack of reliable data on air pollution levels due to limited air quality monitoring capacity,” he stated.
GNA