EPA set to strengthen air quality control

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says effective June next year, it will be able to deliver information on air quality daily for prompt intervention.

The agency is partnering the World Bank to install an improved Air Quality Monitoring (AQM) facility to ensure the generation and dissemination of real time data on air quality.

The Chief Programmes Officer at the Environmental Quality Department of the EPA, Mr Emmanuel K. E. Appoh, who made this known last Monday, said due process was being followed to pave the way for the installation of the facility, which was expected to be completed by May next year.

He explained that the initiative was part of the World Bank’s Pollution Management and Environmental Health (PMEH) programme meant to reduce the impact of air, land and water pollution on human health and the environment.

Mr Appoh was speaking at a forum in Accra on improved air quality and health.

The event was a collaboration among the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and the Climate and Clean Air Coalition, a civil society organisation (CSO).

Timelines

He said a number of agreements had already been signed between the World Bank and the EPA, with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) as the vendor for the AQM facility.

"We have been working towards it and we are about 75 per cent through with it. The work plan has been sent to the World Bank for approval and the components of the equipment that is to be installed have started arriving in the country and the plan is that by May next year, it will be installed," he said.

Mr Appoh said if the timelines passed as planned, the facility would be in full operation by June 2020.

Good initiative

He said installing the AQM facility would invigorate the EPA to control air pollution and save lives, while protecting the environment.

He said the authority was currently unable to provide real-time data because its 15 air pollution monitoring devices in Accra were inefficient in collecting, analysing and relaying prompt information on air quality.

The Chief Sustainability Officer of the AMA, Mr Desmond Appiah, said air pollution was of major concern to the assembly, for which reason it considered the collaboration with other agencies in dealing with the challenge a priority.

He said it was important for the country’s environmental laws on air pollution to be enforced.