Air Pollution in Accra is not random; it is a burden carried by the poor

Ghana's Environmental Protection Authority and researchers working with the Clean Air Fund say pollution-related illness now kills more people each year than malaria or HIV — a shift that has taken place without anything like the scale of alarm that infectious disease once commanded.

Pollution-related illness now kills an estimated 12,870 people in Ghana every year and sickens another 107,000 — a toll public health experts say has overtaken malaria and HIV, even as its cost, some GHC 28 billion annually in healthcare and lost productivity, remains largely unacknowledged.

Nima Market, a low-income community on the left; a street in wealthy Cantonments on the right Source : Caleb Ahinakwah, Myjoyonline Nima Market, a low-income community on the left; a street in wealthy Cantonments on the right A comparison of air quality between the informal settlement of Nima and the wealthier community of Cantonments shows that in Accra, clean air is not shared equally — it follows the same pattern as much else in Ghana, where income and address determine quality of life.