MONROVIA: Amidst the recent degrading rating of Liberia as the “dirtiest” country in Africa by the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) 2022, the country’s Health Minister, Dr. Wilhelmina Jallah, has underscored the need for citizens to regularly clean their environment for their own health.
She emphasized that, cleaning of environment is the key to existence and survival of life on planet earth.” “A Clean environment is essential for healthy living,” she added.
Minister Jallah made the statements on Thursday, July 28, 2022, at the Ministry of Information, Culture Affairs and Tourism (MICAT) on Capitol Hill, in Monrovia during the Ministry’s regular weekly press conference.
She said maintaining a clean environment reduces pollution, preserves our biosphere, protects endangered species, and also helps preserve the earth’s natural resources.
‘I am not talking politics today but, as a Minister of Health of Liberia, I want to plead with you today that the more you don’t care about your environment, the more it will become polluted with contaminants and toxins that have a harmful impact on our health,” she said.
According to her, unpleasant environment doesn’t just cause infections or repulsion, but it also pulls apart people emotional control and mental stability.
“A clean environment facilitates a sound health, and helps build about a robust well-being,” she stressed.
Minister Jallah told the gathering that, cleanliness is important, for it builds up a healthy environment that facilitates physical and mental wellbeing and growth.
Therefore, its individual as well as collective importance cannot be denied. Cleaning the environment is the key to existence and survival of life on planet earth, the Liberian Health Minister warned.
Interestingly, Liberia has been ranked as the dirtiest country in Africa, according to the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) 2022, with a score of 22.6.
The Index described Liberia as one of the largest electronic waste dumps and one of the most polluted places on earth.
The Environmental Performance Index (EPI,) report said Liberia achieves a collection rate of 90 percent of its e-waste and the informal sector generates employment and income for many, in particular unskilled and disadvantaged youths.
The report named Sierra Leone as the second on the Environmental Performance Index, with a score of 25.7. Third on the list is Ivory Coast, with a score of 25.8. Madagascar, Chad, Burundi, Ghana, Mauritania, The Gambia and Lesotho also made up the top-10 list of dirtiest countries in Africa.
The 2022 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) provides a data-driven summary of the state of sustainability around the world using 40 performance indicators across 11 issue categories, the EPI ranks 180 countries on climate change performance, environmental health and ecosystem vitality.
These indicators provide a gauge at a national scale of how close countries are to establish environmental policy targets which the EPI offers a scorecard that highlights leaders and laggards in environmental performance and provides practical guidance for countries that aspire to move toward a sustainable future.
The overall EPI rankings indicate which countries are best addressing the environmental challenges that every nation faces.
Funding from the McCall MacBain Foundation of Canada supports the EPI work at both Yale University and Columbia University.
The new ranking, observers say, exposes how lackadaisical the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Monrovia City Corporation (MCC) are in performing their duties.
Sometimes ago, the European Union Ambassador to Liberia, Laurent Delahousse, described Liberia’s capital, Monrovia, as the “dirtiest city in Africa”, but quickly retracted the statement.
“Whether or not his statement was on the basis of politics or diplomacy, the EPI has corroborated it by placing Liberia at #1 on its list of dirtiest countries in Africa,” some keen observers said.
