A study by the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) has revealed the widespread presence of drug-resistant bacteria in the country’s environment, with resistant organisms detected in ambient air, rivers, industrial effluents, fish farms, slaughterhouses and pharmaceutical facilities. 

The findings, drawn from environmental surveillance studies conducted between 2018 and 2025, showed resistant bacteria in air samples from Accra and Kumasi, fish-processing effluents in Tema, surface water bodies in the Ashanti, Western and Bono regions, as well as agricultural and industrial sites.

The EPA stressed that the evidence confirmed that antimicrobial resistance (AMR) was no longer confined to healthcare settings but has become an environmental challenge.

In response to the spread, the EPA has launched its Environmental AMR Policy Brief and Implementation Plan (2026–2028) in Accra last Tuesday.

The plan is anchored on five strategic objectives to strengthen the country’s response to the growing threat.

The strategy seeks to improve awareness and understanding of environmental AMR, strengthen knowledge generation and environmental surveillance, reduce infections through improved sanitation and wastewater management, optimise antimicrobial use across agriculture, aquaculture and industry, and develop an economic case to attract sustained investment.

The implementation plan also provides for annual environmental AMR reports, expanded surveillance networks, stronger research partnerships and enhanced inter-agency collaboration under the One Health framework.

Real threat

In a speech read on her behalf, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the EPA, Professor Nana Ama Browne Klutse, said antimicrobial resistance was no longer a distant threat but a present and growing crisis undermining decades of progress in medicine, agriculture and public health.

She explained that the misuse and overuse of antimicrobials, coupled with environmental contamination from pharmaceutical waste, agricultural runoff and improper disposal of medicines, were accelerating the spread of resistant microorganisms.

Prof. Browne Klutse stressed that ecosystems, including rivers, soils, farms and healthcare facilities, were interconnected.

“This is why antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is rightly recognised as a One Health imperative, requiring coordinated and sustained action across the human health, animal health, and environmental sectors.

We must act decisively to protect our environment, safeguard our food systems, and preserve the effectiveness of life-saving medicines for current and future generations,” Prof. Browne Klutse said.

She urged government agencies, academia, civil society organisations, industry and development partners to align their programmes with the strategy, stressing that decisive action was needed to protect the environment, safeguard food systems and preserve the effectiveness of life-saving medicines for present and future generations.

The EPA said the findings underscored the importance of the One Health approach, which recognises antimicrobial resistance as a shared challenge across human, animal and environmental health.

It explained that resistant microorganisms and antimicrobial residues did not respect geographical or sectoral boundaries, spreading through rivers, soils, wastewater, farms and healthcare facilities.

Consequently, it said no single institution could tackle the problem alone, making collaboration among the health, agriculture and environmental sectors, as well as academia, industry and development partners, essential to curbing the spread of antimicrobial resistance.