On February 4, the capital of Ghana set a record that it could have done without: that of the worst air quality in the world. The concentration of fine particles (PM2.5) was found to be so high that Accra found itself propelled to the top of the ranking, taking over places like New Delhi and Beijing. There is a great risk of seeing this kind of performance repeated in the months and years to come across the entire African continent. Old vehicles, congested traffic, piles of garbage burning in the street, cooking with charcoal… The inhabitants of African cities breathe a cocktail of rare toxicity.
Air pollution is a global problem. In 2023, only ten countries in the world had air quality that met World Health Organization guidelines, according to a study by IQAir, a Swiss company that collects data from sensors installed around the globe. . But, in Africa, the scourge continues to get worse.
Already, in 2023, the continent was the region in the world most polluted by fine particles, with South Asia and Central Asia. And the picture remains very incomplete: 30 out of 54 African countries do not have real air quality measurements, or are careful not to communicate them.
Read the decryption | Article reserved for our subscribers In Africa, the city stretches between anarchy and development
Add to your selections
You don't have to look far to find the causes of this exponential increase in pollution. This follows the curve of demography and urbanization. Since the 1990s, the population of African urban dwellers has doubled every twenty years. A fraught growth that is struggling to absorb under-equipped cities with limited financial resources.
These suffocating cities
Lagos, the economic capital of Nigeria and the largest city in sub-Saharan Africa, is a textbook case. The metropolis has just inaugurated its first metro line, but its public transport network remains notoriously insufficient for its approximately 15 million inhabitants. Result: going to work requires spending on average two to three hours a day in traffic jams and exhaust fumes. Added to this is a dilapidated vehicle fleet, mainly made up of imported second-hand vehicles: millions of cars, vans or minibuses that emit high levels of polluting emissions.
Still in Lagos, the law theoretically prohibits burning waste. But the habit persists, due to a lack of efficient collection services, and generates foul-smelling fumes that sting the eyes and throat. Another source of nuisance: the diesel generators with which many homes and businesses are equipped to deal with incessant breakdowns in the electricity network. Industrial gases are not left out. Less than 10% of foundries, cement plants and other factories established in the city have established adequate processing facilities, according to a report published in November 2023 by the British NGO Clean Air Fund. This states that unhealthy air was responsible for 23,900 premature deaths in the Nigerian megalopolis in 2019.
You have 25.73% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.