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To combat the escalating impact of air pollution across Africa, government officials and stakeholders from various parts of the globe have convened in Lagos to seek lasting solutions to the problem.

The ongoing four-day CLEAN-Air Forum Lagos 2024, organized by the Lagos State government in collaboration with AirQo, is centred on this goal.

The policy forum has drawn 80 policymakers from diverse African cities and countries and is structured around four primary objectives.

Dr. Tunde Ajayi, the General Manager of the Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA), emphasized the necessity of strategic partnerships to ensure cleaner air during his address at the opening ceremony.

He highlighted that the forum underscores the collective efforts and collaborations aimed at addressing air pollution, reaffirming LASEPA’s dedication to combating this environmental challenge.

In his speech titled: “Advancing collaborations and multi-regional partnerships for clean air actions in African cities,” Ajayi said that the forum is to bring all African cities together to discuss how we can make air in Lagos, Nigeria and in Africa generally cleaner.

Ajayi said that the forum calls for more consciousness for advocacy, adding that there is a need for transparency and agreement to include more people to drive the agenda of clean air further.

He added that Lagos State “is also making commitments to ensure that we measure the quality of our air and we are also able to regulate that which will cause us pollution.”

The event, which saw participants from across 34 countries in Africa, Asia, academia, researchers, and government partners, had 256 registered participants, was to map out the policy landscape across the continent, as they affirmed that data needs to advance evidence-informed policy development for quality management.

Responding to questions on how Lagos accesses the level of pollution in the state, Ajayi said: “We are addressing each of the causes of pollution in several areas. For example, in Bariga, we are building a team for the women to tackle pollution because of their fish-smoking trade.

“In several other areas like Ikorodu, we are insisting that organisations and industries install pollution abatement plants.

“In other areas in Lagos, we ensure that people reduce the amount of pollution they emit into the system. We also stop open burning in many communities, we ensure that their waste is properly disposed of in a more controlled way and we hand solid waste to LAWMA and ensure that they are properly disposed.”

He said that the state has put in a lot of actions through publicity, sensitisation and awareness creation, as well as ensuring that they shut down agencies that have refused to install pollution abatement plants. For instance, several times, you see in the media that a lot of companies have been shut down primarily due to air pollution.

Also, Founder of Airqo, Prof. Bainomugisha of Makerere University, Uganda, said that there is a need for collaborative efforts to fight pollution as air quality affects the quality of lives in all our cities in Africa.

Bainomugisha said that in Africa, several strategies can be done to be able to achieve better clean air.

The first strategy, the Ugandan don said, is an investment in air quality monitoring, adding, “This is what Airqo is building on, manufacturing low-cost air quality monitors to enable African cities to be able to monitor air quality. If all cities in Africa can monitor air quality, we can scale the magnitude of air pollution and other actions can follow.”

Bainomugisha said that several actions that can follow are investment in the sectors that are considered to be key drivers in air pollution, sectors like transport, and investment in the mass transit systems to reduce the number of vehicles on our roads while ensuring that our roads are safe.

He added that the other investment is in the waste management sector “because we know that if waste is not properly managed, it ends up in the air, resulting in air pollution. “Ultimately, we need to know that air pollution ends up in our lungs and causes a lot of illnesses.”

The other one is education and awareness, we need to raise awareness among different stakeholders to increase the priority on addressing air pollution.

He added: “The public needs to know the importance of air quality and also begin to demand actions from the government in improving air quality.

“Most importantly, knowing what they can do as part of action to improve air quality. If you are a citizen and your vehicle is not properly serviced, you are contributing to air pollution, if you are not disposing of your waste properly, you are contributing to air pollution.

“We need more collective actions to bring our air quality back and at the same time, small collective action can help improve this, proper waste disposal.”

On regulation of air quality, he noted: “We need to be able to know what are the permissible levels of air pollution in different cities, and countries so that we will be able to know whether we are progressing or not.

“These are some of the actions to consider to improve air quality in Africa. We need to know that it is a multi-national, multi-stakeholder problem. You can’t live in one part of the country and think that you can clean up the air quality alone.

“You must collaborate with other regions. One country cannot clean up the air quality alone, there is a need to collaborate with several other countries. That is why this forum has brought several partners and stakeholders from across the continent to see that together we can start making progress on improving air quality in the continent,” he added.

Dr. Bolajoko Malomo of the Department of Psychology, University of Lagos (UNILAG), said that Nigeria’s population is growing rapidly with much industrialisation, including an increase in the use of vehicles and vehicular movements, causing the emission of fumes.

She said that efforts to check air pollution are ongoing in the state but a lot needs to be done. She said that the event was significant as it reawakened the consciousness of participants to the populace on the importance of environmental health.

Lamenting that poor quality of air causes sicknesses such as cancer, and respiratory diseases, among others, because of the heavy pollution in the air, Dr. Malomo urged the press to take on the challenge of better sensitization of the public on the dangers of air pollution to human health.

Malomo called for a collaboration from all stakeholders, urging the media, and policymakers, among others, to create awareness of the menace.