The National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) in partnership with Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) and Makerere University, on Monday launched the Air Quality Awareness Week, which runs from 6th to 10th May 2024.
Dr. Akankwasa Barirega, NEMA Executive Director, while addressing Journalists at the Uganda Media Centre in Kampala on Monday, said Uganda will commemorate the air quality week under the theme: “Knowing your air to Protect Human Health and the Environment’’.
He said the purpose of Air Quality Awareness Week is to raise public awareness about the importance of air quality to human health and environment and what we can do to continuously improve air quality around us.
“Air pollution, including fine particulate matter and tropospheric ozone and their precursors, is the leading environmental risk to human health, with 99 percent of people worldwide exposed to air pollution levels that exceed the WHO guidelines”, he said.
He said in Uganda, compromised air quality increases disease burden with close to 31,600 people dying from air pollution-related diseases annually, especially in urban areas. He cited sources of pollution conducted in Kampala City, which revealed that transport is the leading cause of air pollution followed by domestic and biomass burning.
“Other sources of air pollution are industrial emissions and dust released from un-tarmacked roads. Our Air quality monitoring data especially around Kampala indicate an increase in air pollution from an annual average of 39.5µg/m3 in 2019 to 3 41 µg/m3 in 2024”, he said.
“This is about eight times above the annual average recommended guideline of 5 µg/m3 , by the World Health Organization (WHO). This therefore means that our air is increasingly getting polluted and we must take deliberate measures to address the factors causing the pollution”, he added.
Dr. Akankwasa said; to address this rather very bad situation, Government of Uganda has come up with several measures.
He enumerated the measures to include; the National Standards and Regulations for Air qualities, which have now been established for the first time since Uganda ever existed.
“These were gazetted last month and we shall be unveiling them to the public in more detail this week,” he said.
He also cited tree planting with National forest cover now having improved from 9.5 percent to now 13.3 percent.
“We have 1.9 Million Hectares of forest now. We encourage all people living in Uganda to green their compounds, farmlands, land boundaries, pathways, road reserves, school compounds, name it. This way, we shall continuously improve our forest cover”, he pointed out.
In addition, Dr. Akankwasa said all industries will be required to install scrubbers, electrostatic precipitators and fabric filters to reduce industrial emissions. He said Industries will also be required to install automated air quality monitors that transmit data automatically to the central database.
“Industries that will emit above allowable standards will require permits and will be required to pay for excess emissions. This way, industries that use green technologies will save money and those using old technologies will have to be penalized”, he further pointed out.
NEMA says; after the grace period, certain technologies will be declared banned in line with the regulations.
On waste management, Dr. Akankwasa recommended proper collection and disposal and avoiding open burning of waste, which is a big problem.
He said tarmacking of roads shall reduce particulate matter from dusty roads and that NEMA will restrict engine technologies and age in line with new standards to address vehicle pollution.
“In addition, we shall promote and ensure good quality of fuel, in addition to promoting cleaner energies for households; including use of improved stoves, popularization of use of gas instead of fuel wood, low tariffs for cooking and industrial electricity, solar and wind energy promotion among others,” he further added.
According to World Health Organization (WHO) data, Air pollution is associated with 6.7 million premature deaths annually. Annual malaria death stands at 608,000 people (2022), HIV annual death is 630,000 (2022), road accidents account for 1.19Mn deaths (2022), annual battle related deaths account for 526,000 deaths (2022). Covid- 19 killed 6.9 Million people and the global attention completely shifted from economics and politics to Covid -19.
Eng. David Luyimbazi, the Deputy Executive Director, Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) said stakeholders in Air Quality shall carry out continuous research and development in renewable energies, air quality monitoring technologies and cleaner production technologies.
“The environment can do without us but we can’t do without the environment”, he said.
He said KCCA has installed Air quality indicators in the city in partnership with NEMA and Makerere University.
“Clean Air Action Plan is also in the process to address air pollution in the city”, he added.
Eng. Luyimbazi said; with support from the World Bank, KCCA is to install 100 more Air Quality Indicators. He discouraged city dwellers from engaging in waste burning and dumping of wastes in water, saying it’s a major cause of air pollution in the City.
Dr. Rebecca Nantanda, a Senior Research Fellow at Makerere University Lung Institute, said Air pollution makes people contract deadly diseases such as; Tuberculosis (TB), whooping cough, heart attack and other lung related diseases. She said children are the most vulnerable victims of lung diseases brought about by Air pollution and called for collective effort to stem the vice.
“Air pollution is also dangerous to the health of pregnant mothers and affects people of all categories”, she said.
She recommended stakeholders in air quality to carry out more research in curbing air pollution, while recommending people of all ages to carry out regular lung checks and increase awareness of air pollution hazards.
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