Worsening air quality in Kampala a threat to health, economy

On September 5, 2018 at 10am, Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) reported that air quality index measured at Nsambya, Kampala by the air pollution monitor was six times higher 162(g/m3) than World Health Organisation (WHO) Air Quality Guidelines 25(g/m3).

To understand how bad this is, is to compare with other cities with clean air quality levels taken at the same time with Kampala’s; Beijing, China’s air was at 48(g/m3), Zurich, Switzerland was at 21(g/m3), and Los Angeles, USA at 25(g/m3), all heavily industrialised but cleaner than Kampala.

The Air Quality Index scale as defined by the United States of America Environmental Protection Agency’s 2016 standards indicates that readings below 50(g/m3) show that the air quality is good with little or no health risk. If the air quality gauge is 101 to 150 (g/m3), people with respiratory diseases such as asthma plus active children and adults should limit prolonged outdoor activities.

A check on American Embassy Air Quality Control Centre 9.am, 23/09/2019 is in red, classifying air quality as “unhealthy” with a reading of 174! Clearly, the situation is worsening.

In fact, Kampala has a high concentration of tinny air particles, small enough to invade even the smallest airways. These are scientifically known as Particulate Matter, 2.5 micrometres (PM2.5).
Uganda’s annual mean levels of PM2.5 far exceeds the WHO guidelines by up to five times (48.7 micrograms per cubic meter [g/m3] of ultra-fine particles of 2.5 micrometers or less in diameter which can penetrate and lodge inside the cardiovascular system).

WHO reports that the mortality rate for air pollution in Uganda was 155.7 for every 100,000 in 2016. About 13,000 people died from air pollution in Uganda in 2017, according to updated figures from the Health Effects Institute and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.

More than 10,000 of the deaths were due to inhaling toxic fumes from indoor wood and charcoal-burning cookstoves – household air pollution.

Globally, WHO estimates show that air pollution is responsible for about 25 per cent of all adult deaths from stroke, 24 per cent from heart disease, 43 per cent from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and 29 per cent from lung cancer.

Without urgent intervention, this trend is likely to negatively impact flow of investors, business leaders, high level conferences and tourists in Uganda. Health and environmental concerns are central to decisions that determine investment and tourism destination.

Kampala is already a home to global companies – bringing and stimulating jobs, dollars and top-notch talent from all-over the world. All of us have a right to quality and clean air but these high-end and high spender pool of business leaders are extremely sensitive to risky work environments for themselves and their families. Other cities are watching and positioning to grab these job heavy business headquarters from us.

Besides Nairobi and Addis-Ababa (mostly because of African Union Headquarter), Kampala remains a tough contender, very much attractive to companies finding and expanding footprint in Africa. Of course, Uganda’s tourism numbers are expanding. Tourism grew by 7.4 per cent with 1.5 million tourists visiting Uganda in 2018, delivering $1.6 billion. We do not want to risk this positive trend.

What is mostly concerning is that bad and dirty air in Kampala is not caused by rapid industrialisation (compare Kampala air 162(g/m3) and Beijing’s air 48(g/m3) – but rather from avoidable and less structural problems such as smoke, car exhaust, residential trash burning and dumping, road dust, and soot from indoor charcoal fuelled cookstoves.

As a country we can put in place measures (administrative and policy) to mitigate Kampala City pollution challenges. In fact, National Environmental Management Authority (Nema) is already legally authorised to deal with these problems – that continue to fester!

Nema, KCCA and Finance ministry need to reflect and act on some of these questions every day. Why are we still burning trash, buveera and tyres in the city? Organised mass public transport system and next generation mobility may take a while but why don’t we have emission limitation for motor vehicles (taxis alone estimated at 12,500) and bodabodas (estimated at 300,000) that storm the city every day? Why are we not gazetting zero-emission zones where mostly polluting cars are banned? Why do we still impose 18 per cent Value Added Tax on Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and thus continue to make transition from charcoal to LPG expensive for many families in Kampala?
Why are inner city roads in Kampala and Wakiso townships still dusty in this 21st Century? Why don’t we for instance as a country have a real-time, sufficient and publicly accessible air quality monitoring system/network to provide us reliable data and air pollution exposure information? How will Kampala City and Nema act on air pollution levels if they don’t have reliable data to show that air quality standards are being breached?
Kampala air is in red zone. We have to act now and bend it back to the green zone.

Mr Rwakakamba is founding chief executive for Agency for Transformation – a think tank based in Kampala.