Nairobi City develops air quality action plan
Many African cities are faced with growing air quality problems that pose serious environmental and public health risks. Deteriorating air quality in most of these cities can be attributed to several factors such as: increasing urban population, unregulated traffic activities, poorly maintained vehicles, continued use of biomass fuel as the main household energy source, inadequate regulations and air pollution control policies among others. Nairobi City, with its rapid urbanization, fast rising population and increasing motorization, is in many ways typical of most African cities and faces similar air pollution problems.
The Nairobi City County Government in partnership with UN Environment and the Environmental Compliance Institute (ECI), and working with a multi-stakeholder technical committee, has developed Nairobi City’s first Air Quality Action Plan (2019-2023). The Action Plan was developed as part of UN Environment’s pilot project to support three African cities – Addis Ababa, Kigali and Nairobi – to develop better air quality management strategies in order to protect public health and the environment. The Action Plan outlines the priority actions that the Nairobi City County Government will undertake in the period 2019 – 2023 in order to reduce harmful air pollution in the city.
