Desmond Chris Appiah, Chief Resilience and Sustainability Advisor at the Accra Mayor’s Office
A Chief Resilience and Sustainability Advisor at the Accra Mayor’s Office, Desmond Chris Appiah has called for a review of the alignment and decentralisation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in accordance with the local governance structure of the country to enable them to deliver their mandate effectively.
According to him, the current structure of the EPA has little impact at the local level and does not make the all-important work of environmental protection, which has become even more pressing in the face of climate change and growing air pollution effective.
“I don’t know any Assembly that has EPA directly involved in a lot of their operations apart from the building permit application process. Besides that, there is no specific engagement at the Assembly level which would ensure mainstreaming of environmental protection tenets in their work. Again the legal framework which informs the structure of the Assemblies does not help.
“Environmental concerns are not given very attention in the operations of District, Municipal and Metropolitan Assemblies. There are no clear connecting lines and linkages.
“Assemblies are the vehicles that drive the implementation of government policy, where the rubber meets the road, so I think in all our scattered efforts at addressing the current environmental challenges, it is about time we reviewed or take a critical look at these structures to bring it more in line with the commitment of government to decentralization for effectiveness,” he said.
Mr Appiah made the call in Accra at a 2-day meeting to present and discuss the work on policy tracking on the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Urban Health Initiative (UHI) on Tracking Urban Environmental Policies related to Air Pollution held at the University of Ghana on Friday.
Meanwhile, the Acting Director in charge of Environmental Quality at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Mr Emmanuel Appoh in his remark stressed the need to develop an air quality policy for Ghana.
He emphasized the “need to synchronize the air quality policies we have…by mapping and reviewing the scattered policies… We also have to set up air pollution management across Ghana and this doesn’t have to be done by only EPA. I think academia, researchers, and local governments should play their part to scale up investments in this area”.
Maria Neira, Director of the Department of Environment, Climate Change and Health-WHO, delivering final remarks virtually, expressed satisfaction with the quality of the discussion and the high level of the commitment of all the stakeholders.
She lauded the participants for the lessons of Accra’s participation in the Urban Health Initiative and the contribution to the International community.
Dr Niera emphasized that all stakeholders, “can be proud of what has been achieved and demonstrated. We can help the world after COVID-19 if the decisions are going in the right direction based on data and research”.