Abstract:
- Liberia’s new EPA environmental laboratory guarantees quicker, science-backed air pollution detection and response with out counting on overseas labs.
- Specialists warn capability means little with out enforcement, citing previous circumstances the place confirmed air pollution went unpunished and urging the Boakai administration to pair scientific advances with stronger penalties and transparency.
- Air pollution in Liberia poses extreme well being, environmental, and financial dangers, from contaminated water and dangerous waste to air air pollution and land degradation, with consultants calling for coordinated authorities motion and public schooling to curb the disaster.
By Aria Deemie, local weather change reporter New Narratives
Specialists say Liberia’s new absolutely outfitted environmental laboratory is a breakthrough that would rework how the nation tackles air pollution. The laboratory, launched final month by the Environmental Safety Company, will enable EPA technicians to conduct forensic testing on air, water, and soil samples, permitting them to answer contamination emergencies shortly with out sending samples overseas.
“This can be a recreation changer,” stated EPA Government Director Emmanuel Urey Yarkpawolo at a press convention for the launch. “For the primary time, we are able to again our findings with science.”
The lab is a part of a broader company reform undertaken by Yarkpawolo to handle what he has repeatedly stated have been main deficiencies underneath the administration of former president George Weah.
“Once I took workplace, even our personal buildings didn’t meet environmental requirements,” he stated. Donated testing gear sat idle for lack of area. “We lacked autos, workplaces, even primary infrastructure. It was a contradiction that undermined our integrity.”
Since then, the EPA has moved right into a everlasting headquarters and outfitted its compliance workforce. Yarkpawolo stated the lab will assist Liberia assert management over its pure sources, together with via an upcoming nationwide carbon credit score coverage geared toward benefiting native communities.
Specialists applauded the developments however warned that the federal government should match the brand new scientific capability with enforcement.
“Having a lab doesn’t imply something if regulators received’t use the information to carry polluters accountable,” stated Emmanuel T.T. Swen, an environmental scientist and former assistant minister of mines underneath the Weah administration. “We’ve seen circumstances the place air pollution was confirmed, and nonetheless nothing occurred.”
The Boakai administration has had a combined report on air pollution because it got here into workplace in January 2024. There have been some large strikes together with the fining in Could of telecommunications firm Lonestar Cell MTN $US15,000 for extended noise air pollution from its generator facility in Congo City — one of many first such fines for the reason that 2002 Environmental Protection and Management Law got here into pressure. The penalty adopted a decibel-level evaluation. It’s unclear whether or not Lonestar has paid the wonderful. Environmental Safety Company boss Urey Okay. Yarkwapolo and company communications officer didn’t reply to a request for remark earlier than deadline. Rahul De, CEO of Lonestar Cell MTN Liberia, didn’t reply to a number of requests for remark.
That very same week, EPA enforcement groups carried out a shock inspection in southeastern Liberia. They shut down Scott Funding, a Liberian-Chinese language mining firm, and issued seven-day ultimatums to a number of others, together with SOAUR Mining Firm, a completely Chinese language-owned agency, and a number of Class B miners discovered to be utilizing dredges and excavators with out environmental permits.
The EPA pledged to launch a full report on the nationwide mining crackdown by the top of Could. However greater than two months later, the standing of the investigation, and whether or not any corporations complied, have been shut down, or penalized, haven’t been made public.
FPA/New Narratives contacted the EPA’s government director and communications workforce for updates on the standing of those enforcement actions, however they didn’t reply earlier than publication.
For years, environmental oversight in Liberia has been inconsistent and opaque, in keeping with consultants – a patchwork of verbal complaints, paper guarantees, and businesses with out the instruments to behave. Officers couldn’t check the air close to factories or verify if a group’s water was poisoned. Their studies relied on rumour. Warnings got here late, if in any respect.
Specialists say Liberia is dealing with a mounting air pollution disaster that threatens public well being, the surroundings, and the nation’s financial future. From the crowded streets of Monrovia to essentially the most distant rural communities, the indicators are in every single place: piles of uncollected waste rotting within the open, streams and rivers choked with plastic and sewage, and poisonous smoke from open burning drifting into properties and marketplaces. Specialists warn that poor waste administration practices, coupled with fast city development and weak enforcement of environmental legal guidelines, have turned many communities into hazardous zones. Contaminated water sources are driving outbreaks of cholera, typhoid, and diarrheal ailments—diseases that disproportionately have an effect on kids and place huge pressure on Liberia’s fragile healthcare system. In fishing communities, industrial and home runoff is polluting coastal waters, threatening marine life and the livelihoods of 1000’s who rely upon the ocean.
The influence goes past well being. Environmental degradation is eroding agricultural productiveness, whereas clogged drainage methods and litter-strewn waterways improve the danger of flooding through the wet season. Air high quality suffers not solely from car emissions but in addition from the open burning of refuse and biomass, which releases dangerous particulates and greenhouse gases. Within the dry season, mud from unpaved roads and uncovered soils provides to the burden. But public consciousness of the risks of air pollution stays low, and efforts to handle it are sometimes underfunded and uncoordinated. Civil society teams are calling for pressing motion—tighter enforcement of sanitation bylaws, funding in waste assortment and recycling infrastructure, and group schooling campaigns to alter disposal habits. With out decisive measures, Liberia’s air pollution drawback will proceed to undermine public well being, degrade the surroundings, and gradual progress towards sustainable improvement.
“Air pollution impacts extra than simply the surroundings,” stated Mr. Nick Benito Goll, a Liberian environmental well being skilled. “Air air pollution contributes to respiratory diseases, worsens hypertension, and disrupts sleep patterns. Noise air pollution can injury listening to and trigger continual stress. With out correct monitoring and enforcement, communities proceed to undergo these well being impacts in silence. He additionally warned about using mercury in water contamination, which has been linked to elevated dangers of most cancers and different severe well being issues. ”Critics stated the EPA has lengthy lacked both the capability, or the desire to problem politically related polluters. “We’ve had science earlier than. What we lacked was political will,” stated Swen, citing repeated incidents involving Bea Mountain, in Grand Cape Mount county and river air pollution. “In different international locations, corporations pay closely for air pollution. In Liberia, the penalties are too mild to make a distinction.”
Swen pressured that impartial testing is crucial in a system the place corporations typically submit their very own air pollution studies. “A mining firm may present you their very own readings and say every little thing’s wonderful. However till the federal government has its personal verified outcomes, how can we all know the reality?”
Swen additionally known as for stronger collaboration throughout authorities: “The EPA could have the lab, however actual regulation means the Ministry of Labor, Mines, and NPHIL should use it. It’s about defending lives and livelihoods, not simply ticking packing containers.”
This story was a collaboration with New Narratives. Funding was supplied by the American Jewish World Service. The donor had no say within the story’s content material.
