Policy dialogue on air quality management in Tanzania

Background

Many African countries are recording increases in air pollution, especially in the major cities, due to among other factors, industrial growth, traffic congestion, and open-air waste burning. This contributes to high negative impacts on human health. Air pollution control by city authorities is limited due to among other factors, a lack of data on air pollution, to inform the development and implementation of air quality management plans and air pollution control policies. This is largely due to limited capacity in undertaking continuous monitoring of ambient pollution.

In Tanzania, the City of Dar es Salaam which is one of the fastest-growing cities in Africa has made substantial progress in improving air quality, but still experiences poor air quality days and faces challenges in describing levels of pollution in the city. Rapid urbanization and industrialization have resulted in a significant deterioration of air quality in the city. In accordance with the World Health Organization’s guidelines, the air quality in Tanzania is considered moderately unsafe – the most recent data indicates the country’s annual mean concentration of PM2.5 is 29 µg/m3, exceeding the recommended maximum of 10 µg/m3(2019)[1].

Measuring air pollution is an important step in understanding risks and designing effective policies to reduce individual and community exposure to improve public health. The impacts of air pollution on health and the environment in Dar es Salaam have been recognized as a pressing issue on the agenda of the city authorities and urban planners. While sectoral cooperation mechanisms have been effective in solving the technical issues in a particular field, the growing interdependence among different source sectors such as industry, transport, waste management and others, call for a coordinated and collaborative approach to tackle the issue of air pollution at both city level, as well as at the national level.

The Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) Africa Center and the C40 Climate Leadership Group in collaboration with the Dar-es-Salaam Institute for Technology (DIT) have supported the Dar es Salaam City Council (DCC) and the Regional Commissioner for Dar es Salaam to develop baseline air pollution status for the city of Dar es Salaam through a) conducting an air pollution monitoring study and b) reviewing existing air pollution data from ground sensors and satellites. The baseline assessment of air quality in Dar es Salaam provides relevant data to support the establishment of air pollution reduction targets, develop air pollution emission control strategies from key source sectors, and develop a city-wide Air Quality Management Plan (AQMP) supported by appropriate policies and legislation. In order to continue further work on air pollution in Dar es Salaam, and link this to the national and regional frameworks for air quality management, a policy dialogue on Air Quality in Tanzania is being planned to create awareness among key policymakers on the status of air pollution in Tanzania in general and Dar-es-Salaam in particular, with a view to informing policy actions and measures for air pollution control at city and national levels.

[1] https://dicf.unepgrid.ch/united-republic-tanzania/pollution