Nema should work to reverse rising cases of air pollution

A polluted Nairobi. [File, Standard]

Annually, the World Health Organisation (WHO) releases reports on the state of the environment. Yet despite the glum statistics, each report presents a worse scenario than the previous one; a clear indicator that despite the hype, governments do little to curb environmental degradation.

Locally, an upsurge in respiratory infections has been recorded. No doubt, this is as a result of the bad air inhaled from an environment exposed to industrial pollution, poor waste disposal and river pollution as a result of dumping waste in rivers.

Indeed, in 2016, a collaborative study between the University of Nairobi and Sweden’s Gotenburg revealed that on average, Nairobians inhaled air that contained cancer causing elements rated ten times higher than safe levels recommended by the World Health Organisation.

Ahead of the World Environment Day to be celebrated on June 5, 2019, WHO has yet again, through ‘The Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Management 2019’, released a report showing that 800 people die every hour as a result of the dirty air they breathe. The report further indicates that the annual death rate from air pollution is 6.5 million people globally, from which an estimated four million of the deaths occur in the Asia-Pacific region. Contributory factors to environmental pollution have been identified as fresh water pollution, soil pollution, marine and coastal pollution, chemicals in industrial products and poor waste disposal. The WHO report indicates that while 2 billion people lack access to waste management, another 3 billion have no access to controlled access to waste disposal facilities.

Major cities and towns in Kenya are citadels of pollution arising from the listed factors. Nairobi, especially, suffers the brunt of not only water shortages, but water whose safety cannot be vouched for. 

Huge garbage mounds across Nairobi, poor waste disposal and the pollution of Nairobi River -from which no less than 10 bodies were retrieved recently following efforts to clean it- compound the situation. The recent upsurge in cholera cases in several counties attests to this poor state of affairs.

The need to enforce the Air Quality Regulations passed by the National Assembly in 2014 to protect the air that Kenyans breathe from further degradation cannot be overemphasised. Equally important, the National Environment Management Authority must show it is equal to the task.