page_title: Ghana Environmental Protection Agency
section_title: Projects
hierarchical_section_title: Ghana Environmental Protection Agency / Projects
caption_attribution_description: English: Launching of Waste Segregation in Accra
context_page_description: The Environmental Protection Agency, is an agency of Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, established by EPA Act 490. The agency is dedicated to improving, conserving and promoting the country’s environment and striving for environmentally sustainable development with sound, efficient resource management, taking into account social and equity issues. It oversees the implementation of the National Environment Policy. EPA Ghana's mission is to manage, protect and enhance the country’s environment and seek common solutions to global environmental problems. Its mission is to be achieved through an integrated environmental planning and management system with broad public participation, efficient implementation of appropriate programmes and technical services, advice on environmental problems and effective, consistent enforcement of environmental law and regulations. EPA Ghana is a regulatory body and a catalyst for change to sound environmental stewardship.
context_section_description: The Ghana Environmental Resource Management Programme began in 1992 to protect the environment at international standards, and staff were sent overseas to study for master's degrees. New departments and a library were opened, and books and videos acquired. In 1994, a historical database of the environment was published with 2,145 records and environmental impact assessment guidelines and procedures were produced. An environmental-education strategy for Ghana was introduced on 22 November 1994.
  An urban air-quality project by EPA Ghana and the United States Environmental Protection Agency to monitor air pollution in Accra began in 2004. Results showed that at six locations, roadside dust and vehicular emissions were the main contributors of airborne particulates.
  In 1988, the World Bank launched a clean-air initiative for Sub-Saharan African cities. After EPA Ghana officers found elevated blood-lead levels in schoolchildren and those working near roads, such as the police and young salespeople, leaded gasoline was phased out in December 2003. EPA Ghana, the UNEP and the Ghana Health Service monitored blood-lead levels in Accra and Kumasi in 2006 to assess changes in blood-lead levels after the phaseout of leaded gasoline. Blood samples were taken from the Ghana Police Service and Tema Oil Refinery personnel, tanker drivers and workers and tollbooth operators, and the populations were all within the World Health Organization limit of 20 µg/dl.
  A National Programme of Action (NPA) seeks to protect Ghana's marine environment. Land-based activities had increased marine pollution from industrial effluent and poorly-managed waste, with resource degradation and increased coastal erosion. The impacts of these activities compromised the capacity of the coast to support sustainable socioeconomic and ecosystem services, such as tourism. With support from the Guinea Current marine-ecosystem project, the NPA is prepared to solve domestic sanitation, fisheries degradation, wetland and mangrove degradation, industrial pollution and coastal erosion with institutional capacity-building, educational and awareness programmes and regulatory activities.
  EPA Ghana is a focus of the Man and Biosphere programmes. In 2004 the National MAB Committee was chartered, and it began in 2005. Ghana joined the International Coordinating Council (ICC) of the MAB. Each year, entries are received for the MAB Young Scientist Award Competition. After review, and the best are submitted to UNESCO for the competition; in 2010, four were submitted. A delegation from the National MAB Committee visited the Bia Biosphere Reserve.
  A strategic environmental assessment (SEA) began in May 2003. The assessment was incorporated into the Ghana Poverty-Reduction Strategy, and 52 district assemblies produced development plans based on the SEA. An SEA manual was produced, and assessments were conducted for transport and water.
  Integrated management of invasive aquatic weeds, with financial support from the African Development Bank from 2006 to 2011, produced a manual for mechanical and biological weed control. Total weed coverage in the Tano and Volta Rivers was 6,066 hectares (14,990 acres), and 20 community water-weed committees cleared and maintained 500 hectares (1,200 acres) of weedy areas by 2011. At the end of the project, two weed harvesters were purchased to clear all weeds in the Volta and were commissioned in 2012 by the Minister of Environment, Science and Technology.
  The 1992–93 drought, which caused bush fires, prompted the EPC to solicit international aid for a lasting solution to the problem. The United Nations General Assembly passed resolution 39/68B, accepting Ghana's application. In 1984 the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) added Ghana to their lists of countries receiving assistance to combat desertification, and in 2002 a national action programme to combat drought and desertification was begun. A project for developing drylands began in May 2006, with northern afforestation and increased producti
caption: Introduction of waste-segregation project in Accra
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