Air pollution, a "silent killer" in African cities

"Air pollution (in African cities) is high and rising, it's growing quite rapidly," said Desmond Appiah, the Ghanaian director of the Clean Air Fund, the British NGO that published the study. "He's a silent killer."

Urban pollution has been largely neglected in Africa, according to this study.

The African population is predominantly rural and has only recently experienced exodus to urban centres.

Previous research in the journal The Lancet Planetary Health found that toxic air - particularly particles and gases from industry and transport, but also from wood-burning stoves - caused the premature death of 1,1, 2019 million people in XNUMX.

By way of comparison, 650.000 people lost their lives due to HIV-AIDS-related illnesses worldwide in the same year, according to UN figures.

The study looked at the situation in four rapidly growing cities on the African continent - Ghana's capital, Accra, Cairo, Johannesburg and Lagos - to assess the health, environmental and economic costs of pollution.

She compares the results between a "business-as-usual" trajectory to 2040 with an ecological scenario in which cities would take measures to improve air quality, such as modernizing public transport and introducing stoves. cleaner.

Adopting a green approach could save 125.000 lives and save $20 billion in costs and also reduce emissions in these cities by about 20% by 2040, according to this study.

If nothing changes, the financial bill will be multiplied by six.

"Africa's economic growth will be driven by rapidly expanding cities," Clean Air Fund said. "More than 65% of the continent's population is expected to live in urban areas by 2060."

"By the end of the century, Africa will have five of the 10 largest megacities in the world. The big question now is how fast, fair and sustainable this growth will be," according to the same source.

Separately, a Boston-based research group, the Health Effects Institute (HEI), warned Thursday that the human cost of air pollution in Africa is among the highest on the planet.

In sub-Saharan Africa, the death rate from air pollution is 155 deaths per 100.000 people, nearly double the global average of 85,6 deaths per 100.000 people, the HEI said in a report. .