The Clean-Air Forum has agreed that burning hospital waste and emissions from vehicles contribute significantly to air pollution in Africa.
The forum which kicked off on July 15th will conclude on 17th. Deliberations are guided by the theme, Partnerships for Clean Air Solutions.
Hosted in Kenya’s capital Nairobi, more that 250 participants are representing national and local governments, academic institutions, startups, funding organizations, development partners, and grassroots groups from across Africa.
“If you stand next to a major road, you’ll see the kind of emissions coming from vehicles. That is the number one source of pollutants in African cities,” said George Mwaniki of the World Resources Institute.
According to Mwaniki, there is open burning of hospital waste which definately has more implications beyond air pollution.
“If you’re burning medicine, there are issues on how that affects antibiotic resistance in the environment, ” he said.
He added, “it’s actually quite not very nice when you learn that what you’re breathing was somebody’s limb that was cut somewhere.”
In the transport sector, the two and three wheelers (motorcycle taxi, tuk tuk) have been cited as some of the biggest polluters in the cities in the region.
“We are seeing the same in Rwanda and other parts of the continent,” he said.
Details indicate that the forum is organized by AirQo, a pan-African air quality research initiative at Makerere University, and hosted in collaboration with Nairobi City County Government, WRI Africa, and the Health Effects Institute, the Forum builds on the success of previous editions held in Kampala (2023) and Lagos (2024).
The forum has featured emerging technologies, including low-cost air quality sensors and the use of artificial intelligence for pollution forecasting tools that are transforming how cities monitor and respond to air quality challenges.
