Environment

Video: Experts say missing engine part in most Ghanaian vehicles polluting air, sickening people

Experts are warning that many vehicles in Ghana are operating without catalytic converters—an essential engine component that reduces harmful exhaust emissions—contributing significantly to air pollution and serious health risks. Without this device, vehicles release toxic gases directly into the atmosphere, worsening air quality and increasing cases of respiratory illnesses, especially among drivers, roadside traders, commuters,…

Mahmud Mahammed-Nurudeen
MyJoyonline

Liberia’s Wetlands Under Threat as EPA Sounds Alarm on World Wetlands Day

By Nemenlah Cyrus Harmon, New Narrative Climate and Enviromental Reporter Summary ·  Liberia’s wetlands are rapidly disappearing due to illegal settlements, weak enforcement of environmental laws, and public neglect, with the Mesurado Wetlands in Greater Monrovia among the hardest hit, environmental authorities warned during World Wetlands Day. ·  EPA officials revealed severe ecological damage, including…

Nemenlah Cyrus Harmon
Frontpage Africa

Video: Diesel, dust and death: How Ghana’s reliance on trucks over rail is fueling a public health crisis

Every day, diesel fumes choke Ghana’s highways. Thousands are dying. Children breathe air 100%more polluted than kids abroad. Ghana had the solution decades ago-railways that could move freight cleanly and efficiently. But broken promises and stalled projects left the country with less than 1% of cargo on rail. The cost? Ghana’s health, roads and future….

Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith
A1 Radio

Video: Ofankor – Nsawam Road: Dust, Diseases and Deaths

Communities along the Ofankor–Nsawam road are facing serious health risks as dust from road construction contributes to rising respiratory illnesses and other diseases among residents. Prince Owusu Asiedu reports in this social media Video. Ofankor-Nsawam road: Dust, diseases and deaths This story was a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the Clean Air Reporting Project. Funds…

Prince Owusu Asiedu
Adom TV

Liberian Finance Official Defends Debt Strategy Amid Public Concern

By Aria Deemie with New Narratives As civil society organizations intensify calls for debt cancellation and fiscal reform, the Liberian government has defended what it calls a deliberate effort to rebuild trust with global lenders. Alice E. Williams, assistant minister for External Resources and Debt Management at the Ministry of Finance, acknowledged the country’s historic…

Aria Deemie
Frontpage Africa

A Proposed U.S. Remittance Tax Could Hit Liberian Families Hard– Few know it’s coming but experts warn the impact could be profound.

By Aria Deemie with New Narratives In a quiet office on the outskirts of Monrovia, Isaac Success Yomah manages a stream of transactions from Liberians collecting money sent by loved ones abroad, mostly from the United States. It’s steady business, and for many of his customers, essential. But a provision in President Trump’s so-called “Big Beautiful Bill“ put…

Aria Deemie
Frontpage Africa

EPA Shuts Liberian-Chinese Mining Company, Seizes Equipment Over Alleged Illegal Operations; Issues Ultimatums to Others

By Aria Deemie, climate, environment and science reporter with New Narratives Liberia’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), has shut down and seized the equipment of a Liberian-Chinese mining company over alleged illegal operations and given 7-day ultimatums to a number of others, including a fully Chinese owned company. Scott Investment is co-owned by Gao Freng, a Chinese national,…

Aria Deemie
Frontpage Africa

“We Have No Choice”: As Farms Fail, Rural Dwellers Turn to Charcoal Production in Renewed Threat to Liberia’s Forests and Global Climate Commitments

By Aria Deemie, climate and environment reporter with New Narratives Summary: SENJEH DISTRICT, Bomi County, Liberia — Sweat beads on Charles McGill’s brow as he lifts a cutlass and slams it into a log, the forest crackling with midday heat. At 89, he should be resting. Instead, he’s helping fuel Liberia’s booming charcoal trade, one of…

Aria Deemie
Frontpage Africa

Residents and Experts Applaud Environment Agency for Noise Pollution Fine of Major Telecommunications Company

By Aria Deemie, climate, environment, and science reporter with New Narratives CONGO TOWN, Montserrado—Residents of the community housing Lonestar Cell MTN say they are “happy” for the recent $US15,000 fine imposed on the company by Liberia’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The fine, one of the first since the 2004 Environmental Protection and Management Law of Liberia came into effect,…

Aria Deemie
Frontpage Africa

$10 million Weather Warning System Delayed Four Years by EPA “Lack of Competence”, Inflated Salary Claims and Refusal to Follow Donor Rules, Says Report

By Aria Deemie with New Narratives VARNEY GOWAH TOWN, Montserrado – Kulah Tokpah arrives home from her farm, exhausted, her arms burdened with firewood for the meal she is preparing for men clearing her new plot of land. Her once fertile farm is now a patchwork of withered crops, cracked soil, and dead plants. Kulah…

Aria Deemie
Frontpage Africa

Radio: Deforestation is Leaving Rural Dwellers More Vulnerable to Increasingly Devastating Windstorms

In this Kool FM/New Narratives radio report, listeners travel to rural Liberia where the twin forces of deforestation and climate change are leaving communities dangerously exposed to more frequent and devastating windstorms. Across counties like Nimba and Rivercess, families who once relied on forests as natural barriers now find their homes and livelihoods laid bare…

Siaway T. Miapue
Kool FM

Negotiators Strike a Controversial $300 Billion Climate Finance Deal at COP29 as Carbon Trading is Approved

By Evelyn Kpadeh Seagbeh with New Narratives A day after the official end of this year’s United Nations COP29 gathering of countries committed to halting climate change, negotiators struck a last-minute deal for wealthy countries to help poorer countries like Liberia deal with global warming. The so-called “finance COP” held this year in Baku, Azerbajain,…

Evelyn Kpadeh Seagbeh
Frontpage Africa

As Climate Change Impacts Worsen, National Climate Summit Aims to Encourage a New, More Resilient Approach to Farming

ActionAid Liberia coordinator on climate change, Norwu meeting with stakeholders in Monrovia. By Evelyn Kpadeh Seagbeh With New Narratives Monrovia, Liberia — Stakeholders in Liberia’s agriculture sector are coming together this week for a three-day summit designed to kick start a new approach to the growing threat of climate change. The summit “Climate Financing for Agroecology and…

Evelyn Kpadeh Seagbeh
Frontpage Africa

This Year’s Rainy Season Was Worst in Memory But Experts Say Worse is to Come; Call for Massive Government Investment in Adaptation

By Evelyn Kpadeh Seagbeh with New Narratives ROBERTSPORT, Grand Cape Mount County – Francis Gray points to a small mound under a banana tree with a yellow flower planted on the top. The tiny grave holds the remains of his 19-month-old daughter, Linda. Linda was the center of Francis’ and her mother Amie Sheriff’s world…

Evelyn Kpadeh Seagbeh
Frontpage Africa

“Excellence in Independent Journalism” Project in Liberia

“New Narratives is making a significant and meaningful contribution to the overall quantity and quality of independent journalism in Liberia by producing and diffusing high-quality reporting through media partners and other outlets. The evaluation found good evidence that many stories set the news agenda, strengthen the quality of public debate and have
sometimes led to concrete responses from public authorities. Stories and the framing of issues by New Narratives are often picked up by other media in their own reporting.”…


Monrovia’s Citizens Beg for Quiet as Environment Protection Authority Promises Crackdown on Noise Pollution

By Aria Deemie, environmental reporter with New Narratives At 3 a.m. Richedna Kpanneh Tobii finally opened her books. The 21-year-old university student had learned that her densely populated neighborhood of Lakpazee, with more than 160,000 people, was only quiet enough for her to study in the middle of the night. Video clubs blasted matches past midnight….

Aria Deemie
Frontpage Africa

Radio: As Climate Change Drives More Farmers Into the Forests Ambitious Boakai Forestry Sector Reform Is Yet to Help Local Communities

In River Cess County, residents of Garwin Community Forest say logging companies have abandoned their promises, leaving them poorer than before. As climate change drives more farmers into the forest, the government of President Joseph Boakai is promising reforms. But as Eric Opa Doue reports in this collaboration with New Narratives, for people on the…

Eric Opa Doue
Radio