Liberia has been ranked the dirtiest country in Africa by 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.
According to the EPI, 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.
Sierra Leone ranks 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. 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.
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.
Some time ago, the European Union Ambassador to Liberia, Laurent Delahousse, described 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.