Air pollution kills tens of thousands of Ghanaians every year, yet in much of the country, no one is measuring it.
The State of Global Air 2025 report found that air pollution claimed over 32,000 lives in Ghana in 2023, nearly 14% of all deaths, making it the country’s second leading risk factor for death, behind high blood pressure. It is linked to 39% of stroke deaths, 66% of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease deaths, and a third of neonatal deaths.
The damage builds up over a lifetime. The Air Quality Life Index found that Ghana’s average PM2.5 level in 2023 stood at 12.91 micrograms per cubic metre, more than double the World Health Organisation’s guideline of 5. At that level, polluted air cuts nearly a year from the average Ghanaian life.
The problem is that air pollution is mostly invisible. Smoke from a burning refuse heap drifts away, and exhaust fumes blend into the traffic, but the fine particles stay in the air. Without monitors, communities cannot tell when the air is unsafe, and authorities cannot tell where to act. Monitoring in Ghana is patchy, leaving blind spots in understanding where risks are most severe and making it harder for policymakers to design targeted interventions.
The Central Region is one of those blind spots. Now, the Environmental Protection Authority’s Kasoa Area Office is set to expand coverage with five new air quality monitors from the environmental organisation Quali-Breeze, made by the Swiss air quality technology company IQAir. The monitors will add to the National Air Quality Monitoring Network in a region that has had limited monitoring.
The Head of the EPA’s Kasoa Area Office, Surv. Dawood Abbas, received the monitors on behalf of the EPA’s Chief Executive. He committed to placing them in strategic locations across the region and ensuring the data supports campaigns against air pollution in communities.
Quali-Breeze’s Founder and Executive Director, Paul Nwachukwu, said the aim is to put the data to work in communities. While the EPA leads the country’s monitoring programme, he said Quali-Breeze will use the data for community engagement, public education, research and awareness.
“Quali-Breeze can use this data to help vulnerable communities stay safe through its social awareness and education programme,” he said.
He said monitoring alone would not change behaviour. “We believe this coordinated approach will complement the EPA’s mandate and ensure that scientific monitoring is supported by informed public participation and behavioural change,” he said.
He added that the partnership is meant to bring more order to how air quality is managed. “This initiative is intended to facilitate stronger coordination, enhance coherence in air quality management, and improve the overall efficiency and effectiveness of air quality intervention across Ghana.”
Kasoa’s air is under pressure from many of the sources common in Ghana’s fast-growing towns: heavy traffic, waste burning and household cooking with wood and charcoal.
The handover was attended by municipal environmental officers and other stakeholders in the community.