AFRICA: Cairo, Lagos and Nairobi still in the Top 10 most polluted cities
Mid-term air quality indices are not good for Lagos in Nigeria, Nairobi in Kenya and Cairo in Egypt. According to the indicators of the Serbian Numbeo platform, these African cities are still as polluted as in 2022.
The year 2023 is not yet over, but Numbeo already ranks Cairo (Egypt), Lagos (Nigeria) and Nairobi (Kenya) among the most polluted cities in Africa. In its Top10 on the pollution levels index, the Serbian statistics platform on the quality of life in the world grants them the 1st , 2nd and 5th places respectively.
Other cities such as Marrakech (3rd ) in Morocco and Johannesburg (9th ) in South Africa have not escaped this ranking. However, Cairo, Lagos and Nairobi have appeared in most reports on poor air quality in recent quarters, ahead of N'Djamena in Chad, long considered the most polluted city on the continent.
Indeed, the capital of Egypt, which is also home to several factories such as those of French manufacturers L'Oréal (cosmetics) and Sanofi (pharmaceuticals), displays an indicator of 92.3% in terms of sanitation, noise pollution, between others. And yet, the country of the pharaohs, organizer of the 27th Conference of the Parties (COP27) of the United Nations on Climate, has increased investments with the private sector in Cairo in the areas of waste recycling and even ecological mobility (line of metro, electric vehicles).
Cities, prisoners of pollution?
In this area, Nairobi excels and is on the way to becoming the African capital of electric mobility. While waiting for this feat, given the explosive number of green mobility start-ups, the approximately 5.3 million Kenyans who live there must deal with black carbon (or soot carbon). It is an air pollutant emitted during combustion reactions, notably tire wear on the roads. And the phenomenon is quite common there, according to a study by a college of Swedish-Kenyan researchers.
The pollution index (89.45) of Numbeo, which is a blow to the image of Lagos, is not surprising since it is one of the most populated cities in Africa with 21 million inhabitants and a intense economic activity. Only, the World Health Organization (WHO) has recorded up to 440,000 air-related deaths in 2012 in the hometown of President Bola Tinubu. This is why an interregional committee made up of scientists and academics was recently set up to work on “air purification” in five cities, particularly in East and West Africa. , starting with Lagos.
