{"id":9895,"date":"2020-06-05T11:37:55","date_gmt":"2020-06-05T08:37:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africasustainabilitymatters.com\/?p=9895"},"modified":"2026-01-11T05:31:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T05:31:06","slug":"visibility-study-of-nairobi-kampala-and-addis-ababa-reveals-big-air-pollution-problems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/2020\/06\/05\/visibility-study-of-nairobi-kampala-and-addis-ababa-reveals-big-air-pollution-problems\/","title":{"rendered":"Visibility Study of Nairobi, Kampala and Addis Ababa Reveals Big Air Pollution Problems"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The global coronavirus pandemic is having a devastating effect on economies worldwide. However, one of the few positive consequences of travel restrictions and industrial downturn has been a temporary&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/eartharxiv.org\/edt4j\/\">reduction in air pollution<\/a>. This has made&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2020\/04\/23\/coronavirus-photos-show-effect-of-air-pollution-drops-from-global-lockdown.html\">skies cleaner and clearer<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In Kenya\u2019s capital, Nairobi, residents have documented this, reporting that they can now see two prominent mountains \u2013 Mount Kenya and Mount Kilimanjaro \u2013 from the city. It\u2019s a view they haven\u2019t enjoyed for decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Similar&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/edition.cnn.com\/travel\/article\/himalayas-visible-lockdown-india-scli-intl\/index.html\">examples<\/a>&nbsp;have been seen in other cities around the world where short-term visibility \u2013 our ability to see blue skies \u2013 has improved due to the coronavirus lockdown effect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So why have Mount Kenya and Mount Kilimanjaro not been seen for years? This is because visibility is mainly influenced by small airborne particles, often called particulate matter. These are generated through anthropogenic causes \u2013 such as traffic emission, power plants, factories, and crop burning \u2013 or natural causes \u2013 such as forest-fires, sea salt, dust, and volcanic eruptions. The particles scatter sunlight, thereby reducing visibility. So the more particles, the more pollution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The evidence shows that the air pollution levels in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.atmos-chem-phys.net\/18\/15403\/2018\/\">Nairobi<\/a>, as with other East African urban areas, are currently at\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/apps.who.int\/iris\/bitstream\/handle\/10665\/69477\/WHO_SDE_PHE_OEH_06.02_eng.pdf?sequence=1\">unhealthy levels<\/a>. But there are very few studies and a\u00a0lack of systematic and regulatory grade measurements of air pollution\u00a0in East African cities. <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/visibility-study-of-nairobi-kampala-and-addis-ababa-reveals-big-air-pollution-problems-138967\">Read more&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The global coronavirus pandemic is having a devastating effect on economies worldwide. However, one of the few positive consequences of travel restrictions and industrial downturn has been a temporary&nbsp;reduction in&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9896,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}