The youth of Nzema have expressed stern concern over the increased air pollution in the gas enclave of the Nzemaland.

According to them, the rise in pollution levels was adversely affecting their health as there had been a rise in respiratory and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, asthma, and cardiovascular problems among others.

The youth, in a statement issued and signed by Mr Patrick Ekye Kwesie, Leader of the Western Nzema Youth league and copied to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) called on the Government through the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to compel the gas companies operating in the enclave to install air monitoring station.

They believed that an air quality monitoring device would be able to detect and measure pollutants present in the air, such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, and volatile organic compounds both indoors and outdoors.

“As a result of maintaining air quality, air quality monitoring has become more important as poor air quality contains hazardous pollutants that cause health problems. Chemical pollutants from a variety of industries, such as automobiles and domestic fossil fuel usage, contribute to the formation of these harmful pollutants,” the statement said.

“Ghana National Gas Company should lead by example. As the mother company responsible for Ghana's natural gas drive, we expect them to install this Air Quality Station to feed the various local communities with the index because there is an increase in Respiratory and preterm deliveries which we think is associated with the emissions of Carbon dioxide, Nitrogen oxide, Sulphur,” the statement added.

Additionally, the statement urged the companies to come out with a sensitization outline after the successful installation of the air quality device to sensitize the local communities.

While expressing gratitude for the various investments on their land, the youth maintained that their safety and quality of health were paramount.

“Natural gas is unavoidably worse than coal for the climate, due to methane leakage throughout the system. It is dangerous to flare gas in this 21st century. We inject and reuse for power generation and other things even though it is a bit expensive since we need these to power our turbines,” the statement said.