Azad Essa: Why dither on pollution?

If left unchecked, air pollution could result in a future health crisis on the continent resonant of those being seen in industrialised giants like India and China. File picture

If left unchecked, air pollution could result in a future health crisis on the continent resonant of those being seen in industrialised giants like India and China. File picture

Published Dec 12, 2016

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From Nairobi to Addis Ababa, Lusaka to Abidjan, African cities are quickly becoming toxic miasmas. But things may be changing, writes Azad Essa.

When it comes to Africa, the story of pollution and its impact on ordinary people is often the one least told.

For most, Africa is the continent of hunger, war and dictatorships. But if you’re looking to paint the continent with a single brush, it’s the lack of concern for rising air pollution that may just be the most accurate of the lot. From Nairobi to Addis Ababa, Lusaka to Abidjan, African cities are quickly becoming toxic miasmas. The Nigerian city of Onitsha, for example, is considered the world’s most polluted for air quality. But things may be changing.

Last week, six west African countries - Ghana, Nigeria, Benin, Togo, Ghana and Ivory Coast - decided to ban the importation of diesel that contained extraordinary high levels of toxins, known colloquially as “dirty fuels” from Europe. Health experts have long argued that high levels of sulphur in fumes increase bronchitis and asthma. As anyone who has been blasted by plumes of diesel fume would attest: it isn’t just unpleasant; it’s poison.

The move in west Africa is an important one and replicates similar efforts made in five east African countries last year. But the decision in west Africa comes four months after a Swiss NGO, Public Eye, released a report that showed European companies were mixing dirty and clean fuel and exporting them to the continent. In other words, fuel that was neither good enough, nor safe enough for Europe, was being shipped to west Africa because of antiquated regulations in those countries.

The findings might have catalysed action from west Africa, but African leaders have known for years that regulations governing the make-up of fuel in their countries needed to change. If they were unsure, all they needed to consider was European standards. Consider that Europe limits sulphur in diesel to less than 10 parts per million (ppm). Until the new regulations in west Africa, the limit of sulphur in fuel in west Africa was 3000ppm. It would now be limited to 50ppm.

“We are taking a huge leap forward - limiting sulphur in fuels,” Nigeria’s Environment Minister Amina Mohammed said. “This will result in major air quality benefits and will allow us to set modern vehicle standards.”

Air pollution in Africa is linked to industrialisation. Urbanisation is accelerating; motorisation is among the fastest on Earth. The impacts are real. It’s estimated that annual deaths from outdoor air pollution rose by 36percent between 1990 and 2013. Another report, produced by the Organisation for

Economic Co-operation and Development concluded air pollution on the continent was responsible for more premature deaths than those resulting from child malnutrition or unsafe water. This particular report argued that if left unchecked, air pollution could result in a future health crisis on the continent resonant of those being seen in industrialised giants like India and China.

The study’s author, Rana Roy, said Africans needed to reconsider the rising individualism of energy consumption. “It’s striking that air pollution costs in Africa are rising in spite of slow industrialisation, and even de-industrialisation in many countries.

“Should this latter trend successfully be reversed, the air pollution challenge would worsen faster, unless radically new approaches and technologies were put to use.”.

While the ban on substandard European fuel isn’t likely to disperse the miasma of pollution exacerbated by rapid urbanisation, the burning of garbage, open cooking and toxic car fumes is considered among the biggest contributors to airborne toxicity. “It isn’t only dirty fuels that are being dumped in Africa. Used vehicles of all sorts of agesare being exported,” Rob de Jong, from UN Environment, wrote. “A 16-year-old smoke-belching car is exporting pollution.”

The move to add more regulations to the question of fuel is a good one. Still, it begs the question: why is it taking so long? Unfortunately, there’s a question of cost with the assumption that “mixed” fuels were cheaper. Experts have denied the claim.

But given everything we know about the science, it’s rather difficult to walk away feeling the inaction is another classic case of feeble African leadership tied up most certainly with corruption and European double standards. Why are these exports not banned?

* Azad Essa is a journalist at Al Jazeera and co-founder of The Daily Vox.

** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.

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