The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will soon install air quality monitors at industries to enhance its supervision and data collection of industrial pollution.

Dr Kingsford John Kurugu, the Acting Executive Director of EPA, explained that the strategy was to protect host communities of industries, people who commute there, as well as workers.

Dr Kurugu, who disclosed this to the Ghana News Agency in Accra, stated that the motive was to have access to real time data on the levels of pollution rather than the current dispensation where the factories submitted reports of their emissions.

“With this new system, when residents for instance complain about health issues linked to industrial pollution, it will be easy for us to retrieve data, analyze it, know the veracity and make a decision,” he said.

Dr Kurugu stated that the initiative would be implemented under a public-private partnership arrangement.

He added that the Ministry of Finance was working on the framework for that initiative to ensure its operationalisation.

“Air pollution is one of the crucial issues due to its impact on our health systems, children, and the economy. That is why with the support of stakeholders we are working aggressively to enhance monitoring,” he said.

The Acting Executive Director noted that the quality of air influences the health and well-being of people especially those within the vulnerable brackets.

The EPA, he said, was working with partners to install air quality monitoring sensors in Accra and other parts of the country gathering data on air.
“We are not gathering data, but we are sharing it with the public on our social media just to give them an idea of the air around them,” he added.

Responding to the question of enforcement of available regulations, especially sources from the transport sector and waste sector, he mentioned that EPA had started a coordinated institutional approach to monitor air quality among heavy traffic areas and enforcement regime needed to reduce emissions.

Air pollution, linked to climate change, had been identified as the top two risk factors contributing to death and disability in the country, according to a recent World Bank report titled, “Climate And Health Vulnerability Assessment For Ghana.”

On the economic costs of air pollution, the report said a study in Accra, by the World Health Organisation Urban Health Initiative showed that Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease patients spent the most amount of time in the hospital, an average of 29 days.

It said lung cancer patients, with 23 days, Road Traffic Injuries (RTI) patients, with 21 day and pneumonia patients who stayed an average of 8.5 days in the hospital.

The highest number of affected people in terms of socioeconomic status are the middle income, representing 44.8 per cent, followed by the poor, forming 31 per cent and the poorest, representing 13.8 per cent.

The treatment of air pollution-related diseases is very costly, with patients who suffered RTI paying on average US$885 for medical care, patients who have lung cancer paying as much as US$2135, stroke patients, paying US$351 and Ischemic heart disease patients, paying US$638, on average.