Driving on Mombasa Road in Nairobi, between the South B turn-off and Imara Daima Estate, one’s nostrils are often assailed by a foul, pungent and often nauseating smell. This is prevalent especially over the weekends and in the early evenings on weekdays.
Despite protests from those working or living along this area, the National Environment Management Authority (which coincidentally has an office adjacent to these areas) has not smelt anything foul.
Well, a joint study by the University of Nairobi’s Institute of Nuclear Sciences, Sweden’s Gothenburg University and Columbia University’s Earth institute has a distressing revelation - that the air Nairobian’s inhale puts their lives at risk.
The study shows that the levels of carcinogenic (cancer-causing) materials in the air around Nairobi are 105 microgrammes per cubic metre, nearly six times that prescribed by the World Health Organisation. Simply put, Nairobians inhale nearly six times carcinogens when they breath in.
No wonder then that respiratory and cancer cases in Kenya are on the increase, with an annual death rate of 40,000 people. While the report States that dust, gases and metals found in the air lodge in the lungs to cause diseases, other factors also contribute to the increased levels of carcinogens.
Some of the carcinogens are to be found mostly in toilet-cleaning agents, carpet cleaners, pesticides, tobacco smoke, tooth paste and deodorants. Levels of carcinogens in these items are negligible, but because we are repeatedly exposed to them, the risks increase.
Another source of bad air is the putrid smell from overflowing sewage running along roads and within estates. Some of these carry dangerous industrial effluent as seen in the discolouration of the plant matter nearby.
Yet other sources of poisonous gases include emissions from landfills and dumpsites. Uncollected garbage decomposes to release harmful gases.
A visit to Nairobi’s mushrooming informal settlements is depressing.
These places are devoid of basic services and children play near dumped garbage oblivious of the danger that exposes them to. But the biggest risk remains the levels of gas emissions from vehicles and factories that don’t conform to international safety standards.
In most of these cases, Nema officials are either incompetent, lazy or have refused to work. On any road in Nairobi at any minute, there is a vehicle spewing clouds of diesel smoke.
Around Industrial Area, incinerators throw into the air emissions that are, to say the least, dangerous. Most of these have not gone through full combustion to eliminate dangerous elements like lead and sulphur. There seems not to exist guidelines on incinerators.
One is bound to wonder where Nema is as the environment continues to be degraded. Why has the Nairobi County Government taken such a laid-back attitude towards making Nairobi a better place to live in?
Residents pay a lot of taxes to get services and must therefore get value for their money. Garbage collection must be streamlined and professionalised. Recently, the county government unveiled a blueprint for decongesting Nairobi.
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The county government should therefore come up with an efficient and reliable transport system to dissuade people from driving into the city centre in private cars. Planting trees along the major highways is another way to ensure that the air is clean.
Most importantly, Nema needs to get down to work and restrain those hell-bent on sending city residents to an early grave.
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