A photo taken last month by Nairobi resident Osman Siddiqi shows One Africa Place, a bullet-shaped glass high-rise in Nairobi, framed by the jagged, snowcapped peaks of Mount Kenya, which many residents said they have never seen from the capital city.
In Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, residents have documented that they can now see two prominent mountains – Mount Kenya and Mount Kilimanjaro – from the city. It’s a view they haven’t enjoyed for decades. Evidence shows that the air pollution levels in Nairobi, as with other East African urban areas, are currently at unhealthy levels. But there are very few studies and a lack of systematic and regulatory grade measurements of air pollution in East African cities. The existing data only tells us about the current air quality – there’s no historical data to compare it with. It’s important to know how much more air pollution there is because it can have significant impacts on our respiratory, cardiovascular, metabolic, and neurological systems. To this end, A Systems Approach to Air Pollution (ASAP) brings together leading UK and East African academics to provide a framework for improved air quality management.
SOURCE: THE CONVERSATION