KCCA meets industrialists over pollution

PIC : AFP/File

AIR POLLUTION

Thick smoke emanates from an old commuter taxi driving to Kampala from Bweyogerere, this is not the only scenery, other fumes come from speeding boda bodas heading to the city.

These fumes choke the occupants of the commuter taxis causing sneezing and coughing. These are common experiences which city dwellers face.   

This air pollution from automobiles, dust and burning of waste among others are great contributors of poor health and death in our communities

It is against this background that Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) organized a stakeholders meeting with industrialists, factory owners and other stakeholders to forge a way as to how they can mitigate the effects of pollution.

Current status

The KCCA director of Public Health and Environment, Dr. Daniel Okello told the stakeholders that if efforts are not made to reduce these emulsions in the city, more people are likely to be affected by respiratory diseases, while others may even die.

Okello said about 31,600 people in Uganda die due to air polluted diseases. The number of people who die are in communities filled with dust, industrial areas and commercial areas which have cars that put out the fumes and dusty roads.

He said air pollution in Kampala is mostly caused by dust from unpaved roads, fumes from cars and open burning of waste. Okello revealed according to their recent findings, they discovered that flu and cough related diseases have increased for the last one year due to the polluted atmosphere. 

In his presentation Okello noted that some interventions to reduce this pollution would be paving of roads and reducing the number of vehicle usage by using public transport.

Reports highlight danger

A report on air quality compiled by the US embassy air quality monitoring station for Nsambya showed the concentrations of particulate matter was six times higher than the World Health Organisation standard.

Particulate matter is tiny particles that affect the lungs of human beings. The main sources of particulate matter are dust and emissions from vehicles, according to Dr. Bruce Kirenga from Makerere Institute of Public Health. 

In 2014, Kirenga released a report titled, "the state of ambient air quality in two Ugandan cities-Kampala and Jinja.

The report highlighted that there were low levels of pollution in residential areas that are paved. It also pointed out that there were high levels of pollution in commercial areas that were paved but with high volume of traffic. This implies that particulate matter pollution is mainly contributed by dust and vehicle emissions in Kampala.

From the same study it was observed that the gaseous pollution of Nitrogen dioxide showed only two areas (Amir street Nakasero and Namugongo road Kireka) that exceeded the WHO threshold.

A new study conducted by KCCA in 2018 under the Kampala Climate Change Project funded by EU showed that levels of this pollution are beyond the WHO mean standard of 40 micrograms in 11 sites out of 14 sites around Kampala.