World Environment Day 2019: What Can be Done Differently But Consistently to Beat Air Pollution in Uganda?

The 2019 theme for the World Environment Day: Air Pollution raises the profile of a growing environmental challenge across the globe, irrespective of economic status. According to the UN Environment, “understanding the different types of pollution and how it affects our health and environment will help us take steps towards improving the air around us”. Air pollution sources include households, agriculture, industry, transport and waste.

Among others, air pollution has both direct and indirect impact on poverty efforts (SDG 1), through impeding good health and well-being (SDG 3). For example, health experts reveal that as urban air quality declines, the risk of stroke, heart disease, lung cancer, and chronic and acute respiratory diseases, including asthma, increases for the people, who live in them. This in turn weakens energies towards improved quality of education (SDG 4), enhanced gender equality (SDG 5), having in place decent work and economic growth (SDG 8). As a result, this affects efforts towards reduced inequalities (SDG 10), and having in place sustainable cities and communities (SDG 11). Air pollution also frustrates any lifestyle changes towards responsible production and consumption (SDG 12) for the current and future generations.

At the global level, the UN estimates that around 3.8 million premature deaths are caused by indoor pollution each year, with a vast majority of them in the developing world

In Uganda, air pollution at the household level is also related to waste management, Small and Medium-scale Enterprises - SMEs (including informal set ups like Jua Kali) that employ thousands of people. A 2018 report from Kampala Capital City Authority from a pilot study revealed that Kampala’s air quality index measured at Nsambya (a city suburb) by the air pollution monitor on September 5, 2018 at 10 A.M is six times higher 162(𝜇g/m3) than World Health Organization Air Quality Guidelines 25(𝜇g/m3). The results of this pilot study are indicative of unhealthy air and suggest that exposure to ambient air in Kampala may increase the burden of environmentally induced cardiovascular, metabolic, and respiratory diseases including infections.

In addition to Uganda’s huge reliance on biomass-based fuels (to cook, heat and light homes) that have documented indoor pollution impacts like many other developing countries, households and SMES continue to openly burn unsorted waste comprising plastics, organic waste, electronic waste, expired and remains of drugs, paint, medical waste, broken plastic pipes and other chemicals. This mix releases harmful dioxins, furans, and other gases into the atmosphere.

It is also not abnormal to find agro-related SMEs usually operating in close proximity to heavily inhabited settlements, openly and regularly burning rice husks, tree shavings, cattle horns, maize cobs, among others.

For example, the pungent smell which emerges from many abattoirs close to the Kampala City that openly burn cattle horns (normally done in the late evening) persists throughout the night, creating sleepless nights by choking people (link to asthma and other respiratory illnesses) especially the sick, expectant mothers, children and the elderly residing close to them. This is worsened by the hilly nature of Kampala that allows this polluted air to naturally ‘log’ in from valleys to the top, depending on the wind strength and directions.

In some areas, SMEs that process foodstuffs (like maize, sorghum, soya bean); as well as those that mine sand, clay and stones from small to large scale, the budding fine particles are potential causes of respiratory problems and declining water quality.

Uganda’s mute air pollution challenge is the passive smoking in public places like public service vehicles, busy streets, restaurants and other meeting places. According to Tobacco Control Uganda, 38 Ugandans die from tobacco related diseases every day. While Uganda’s The Tobacco Control Act (2015) stipulates that smoking in public places and 50 meters of it is prohibited, only a few success stories in implementing this. As a result, non-smokers are on the receiving end of this, putting their lives in danger. In the meantime, the WHO (2019) reports that in 2017, tobacco killed 3.3 million users and people exposed to second-hand smoke from lung-related conditions. It adds that more than 60,000 children aged under 5 die of lower respiratory infections caused by second-hand smoke. Those who live on into adulthood are more likely to develop chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) later in life.

What can be done differently but consistently?

1. Public information on the sources and effects of air pollution needs to be increased especially with respect to the effects of open burning of wastes especially plastics; and smoking in public places
2. In addition to existing national laws, local authorities should enact air quality ordinances and bye-laws to address air pollution across the country
3. Instead of the widespread open burning of the waste, Government needs to partner with private sector to provide incentives that can prop up cleaner production approaches for agro-related industries, mining, and waste management
4. More in-depth research should be carried out to identify personal exposure and pollution sources, and to develop air quality management plans and policies to protect public health and safety.
5. Related to the above, there should be targeted support and strengthening of citizen monitoring of air quality so as to exert accountability from local authorities, SMEs and other industrial establishments
6. Incentivize industry from SMEs to large ones to increase energy efficiency and production from renewable energy sources. This largely untapped potential could improve electricity systems and cooking solutions, both on the demand & supply sides. At the same time, this also has a huge leeway to address the increasing air quality challenges

Wetlands and Climate Change in East Africa: Why It Is Time to Integrate Climate Change Actions In All Interventions

Climate change is one of the most pressing problems facing humanity and our planet. The 2019 theme for the World Wetlands Day in 2019: ‘Wetlands and Climate Change’ draws attention to the vital role of wetlands as a natural solution to cope with climate change.

In simple terms, this year’s theme reminds us that wetlands play a critical role in storing carbon and reducing the impact of extreme weather events associated with climate change. Among others, they store floodwater and can protect us from storm surges in this era of unpredictable sporadic rainstorms, while providing water during extended drought periods.

It is therefore important to reflect on the ‘natural solutions’ that wetlands provide in adapting to and mitigating the impact of climate change. Unfortunately, use of East African freshwater wetlands for agriculture has increased in recent decades, raising concerns about potential impacts on wetlands and adjoining ecosystems as well as the long-term sustainability of such land use trends.

For example, the IUCN latest report: Freshwater biodiversity in the Lake Victoria Basin, which assesses the global extinction risk of 651 freshwater species, including fishes, molluscs, dragonflies, crabs, shrimps and aquatic plants native to East Africa’s Lake Victoria Basin found that 20% of these are threatened with extinction. Of the freshwater species assessed, 204 are endemic to the Lake Victoria Basin and three-quarters (76%) of these endemics are at risk of extinction.

Wetlands of Lake Victoria for example, form important habitat for many plant and animal species. However, according to IUCN, Lake Victoria region’s freshwater fishes are highly vulnerable to climate change, having high sensitivity, seemingly poor adaptive capacity (primarily relating to lack of dispersal options) and an expected high exposure to change. Therefore, given the great importance of this group in supporting human livelihoods in East Africa, freshwater fishes should be a priority for monitoring and, as appropriate, conservation action to reduce the negative impacts of climate change.

Of course all illegalities in the remaining wetlands need to be stopped as swiftly as possible, alongside efforts to restore these wetlands. But with the volatile effects of climate change setting in, there is an urgent need for strategic and practical options in support of resilience building of vulnerable communities and natural resources like wetlands in East Africa.

Fortunately, the firmness to roll out the globally applauded Paris Agreement is alive and kicking in East Africa. For example, the East African community has adopted a Roadmap on how to approach implementation of the Paris Agreement that includes concrete steps to be taken by the six Partner States. In addition, the East African Community (EAC) Climate Change Policy is under review, while a proposed EAC Climate Change law is in the offing.

But actions taken are more important than these intentions, given the urgency for East Africa to be part of the collective global fraternity to address the climate change challenge and to secure that livelihoods are not thrown in disarray due to climate change effects. In black and white, the IPCC Special report makes it amazingly clear that 2050 must be the global Co2 emissions phase out year (IPCC SR15 Summary for Policy Makers C.1). To do this, almost all areas of life have to be turned upside down in as far as we relate with wetlands and other natural resources: how we live, eat, move around, and what we consume!

It is in this regard that East African CSOs are raising six issues as part of rolling out the EAC Roadmap to implement the Paris Agreement; review of the EAC Climate Change Policy and in the proposed regional Climate Law.

One of these is an appeal to put in place mechanisms to integrate the climate change actions in all planned region-wide micro – to mega investments, projects and programmes, rather than the climate policy being implemented on its own. In other words, all interventions that might impact on wetlands and other natural resources must be assessed against a climate sensitivity criteria (for example adaptation, resilience building etc.) including regular monitoring of wetland ecosystems’ health. This could also be in the EAC Partner States’ updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and Low Emission Development Strategies, as time goes.