Health experts are raising concerns about the alarming rise in deaths and illnesses linked to the worsening air pollution in Ghana.
A recent study has revealed that Ghana’s transport sector is a significant contributor to the country’s worsening air pollution, which is reaching dangerous levels and causing severe health risks to the population.
Speaking to the media, an epidemiologist at the University of Ghana, Dr. Reginald Quansah, highlighted the growing concern over increasing air pollution levels in the country, attributing much of the rise to vehicle emissions.
According to Dr. Quansah, the steady escalation in pollution is predominantly driven by emissions from the transport sector.
“Air pollution levels are consistently moving up. Several factors account for this. I think one of the things that is very obvious is emissions from vehicles,” Dr. Quansah stated.
Experts warn that the transport sector’s contribution to air pollution is not only affecting air quality but also leading to a surge in respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.
Ghana’s transport sector, comprising 3.2 million vehicles as of 2022, is the primary source of air pollution in the country.
The main contributor to this problem is the fleet of aging, highly polluting vehicles, as highlighted in the Ministry of Transport’s recently published National Electric Vehicle Policy.
According to the report, more than 95 percent of domestic transport services in Ghana rely on an aging fleet of vehicles, many of which are highly polluting.
These older vehicles, emitting dangerous pollutants, have contributed to air pollution levels in the country that are eleven times higher than the limits set by the World Health Organization.
The health risks posed by air pollution are severe. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that air pollution contributes to 28,000 premature deaths each year in Ghana alone.
On a global scale, air pollution-related diseases result in more than seven million deaths annually, ranking as the second leading cause of death and disability, following malnutrition.
As pollution levels continue to rise, experts caution that without urgent intervention, the invisible danger of poor air quality will continue to threaten public health and endanger many lives.
An organization dedicated to air quality research, Afri-SET, has been using wearable mobile sensors to monitor the air that commuters inhale.
Their findings highlight dangerously elevated levels of harmful pollutants, particularly during peak travel hours.
“We give [the sensors] to them to wear. The idea is to wear the device close to their nose level, just to see whether what they are breathing in will be the same as the sensor is picking,” explained James Nimo, a research associate at Afri-SET.
“The uncalibrated data shows that rush hours are around 80 milligrams per cubic meter, which is not good for human health. From the graph, you could see that between six and 10, we have some peaks,” Nimo added.
Meanwhile, the Country Lead for the Clean Air Fund, Desmond Appiah, has emphasized the critical need for stricter enforcement of air quality regulations.
“There’s a lot more that we need to be doing to push the needle. The challenge that the clean air field faces is that the quality of the air is not seen, so we call it a silent killer. We are breathing, but we may not see that this is the state of the quality,” Appiah remarked.