Abstract

Promotion of Carbon Footprint Development Mechanism: A Case Study of Osu Night Market

Author(s): MK Commeh*, Z. Agyeman-Rawlings, E. Sefa Appiah3, and F. Ziebell

Energy, one of the fundamentals for economic growth is also one of the fundamental sources of pollutions, through its by-products, as gases emissions; namely particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10). OSU night market on Lokko street, is an old popular market at Klottey Korle constitution of Accra. OSU is a suburb of Accra in which the market is situated. In this market activities normally starts at 3 pm and climax around 9 pm and ends completely around 2 am. During this period mainly, foods are sold to people from all corner of Ghana. Most travellers, mostly drivers and official from government establishment troop there to buy food for the evening. The delicacy or tasty nature of the food attracts people to the market. Food cooked and sold in the market are mainly, kenkey, rice, kelewele, fried yam, fufu, and porridge. Fish and meat like pork are also smoked and sold in the market to go with some of the food sold. It is the cooking and smoking with inefficient cookstove and smoking ovens in the market that causes the air pollution during trading activities. Firstly, a survey cookstoves, smoking oven and positions for taking air pollution measurement were marked. Air pollution levels were measured before and after interventions, and levels of carbon footprint recorded. New clean cookstoves and fish smoking oven with efficiency of 60% and fuel reduction of 66.66% were installed together with huge chimneys to direct the smoke away into the atmosphere. From our findings there was a rise in particulate matter from 820 ug/m3 to 8024 ug/m3 before the installation of the clean cookstoves and then decline from 8024 ug/m3 to 35 ug/m3 after the installation of the clean cookstoves. After the intervention the average PM2.5 reduced from 1821.625 ug/m3 to 494.75 ug/m3 and that of Carbon monoxide reduced from 12.96 ppm to 2.575 ppm.