The Green Africa Youth Organisation (GAYO) has organised a training workshop for National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) and Environmental Health Officers (EHOs) from across the Greater Accra Region on air-quality monitoring and disaster preparedness.
The workshop held yesterday was part of efforts to tackle rising air pollution and persistent waste-management challenges.
The regional training forms part of a broader national agenda to integrate real-time environmental data into disaster preparedness, strengthen inter-agency coordination, enhance community awareness and build a more sustainable and climate-resilient country.
Opening the workshop, the Greater Accra Regional Director of NADMO, Mr Dennis Nartey Adjarno, described the training as timely and urgent, citing new statistics that show over 31,000 deaths occur annually in the country as a result of poor air quality.
He said many Ghanaians remain unaware of the severity of the crisis, even though most of the pollution sources were man-made and preventable.
“People are oblivious of the fact that air pollution can kill,” he said, adding that recent spikes in respiratory diseases, cancers and related complications are strongly linked to polluted air.
Mr Adjarno explained that refuse burning, household smoke, poorly maintained factory chimneys, fumes from vehicles and emissions from road construction activities continue to expose communities to toxic air.
He said the new training would enable officers to deploy air-quality sensors more effectively and extend educational outreach to marketplaces, lorry stations, funerals and large public gatherings.
“Any opportunity we have, we will let the public know that air pollution is one of the major killers in this country,” he added.
Touching on the region’s worsening waste crisis, Mr Adjarno reaffirmed that plastic waste constitutes nearly 80 per cent of all waste generated in Accra, contributing heavily to flooding and poor sanitation.
He said NADMO, working with GAYO and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), would roll out labelled waste-segregation bins and intensify household-level education.
“We cannot eliminate plastics overnight, but segregation is the starting point,” he stressed, adding that an increasing number of companies now purchase and recycle plastics.
He further called for long-term behavioural change, starting from schools, to ensure children grow up understanding the importance of separating plastic from organic waste. “If we segregate our waste properly, we reduce burning, reduce air pollution, and protect our health,” he noted.
The Project Coordinator of GAYO, Ms Mabel Naa Amorkor Laryea, explained that the training seeks to build the capacity of EHOs and NADMO officers in using, calibrating and interpreting data from the newly donated mobile air-quality sensors distributed across all Municipal and District Assemblies.
“Air pollution is not linear; it is circular,” she said. “Waste burning in Shai-Osudoku can affect residents in La because the wind carries pollutants across communities.”
She emphasised that poor air quality was connected to asthma, hypertension, diabetes and other chronic illnesses, underscoring the need for stronger advocacy.
Ms Laryea urged the public to support monitoring efforts by reporting hotspots and adopting responsible waste practices.
BY CECILIA YADA LAGBA
