Zimbabwe: The Scourge in Harare's Air

Source from:  Financial Gazette (Harare) 20 December 2007 12/26/2007

The highways leading into the capital have huge billboards that welcome travellers to the "Sunshine City", but there is no warning about Harare's deteriorating air quality. Fog engulfs the atmosphere during the early morning hours , sending the first signals the city's air is harbouring harmful elements. Evidently, Zimbabwe's crumbling economy is bringing down with it the quality of air Harare's urbanites are gasping, terribly eating into their lungs. The air is picking up uncurbed toxic emissions from industrial processes and vehicles, making breathing a major health hazard. There's dust wafting through the atmosphere from the foundries, quarrying and cement plants, wood-working, detergent and fertiliser manufacturing and base mineral grinding. Metallic fumes from foundries and fibreglass dust from the manufacture of canopies and sanitary ware are presenting major air pollution threats to the city. What might have been a sunshine city is turning out to be a chamber of death, with a cocktail of toxins whose effects might be the huge number of patients the country's health delivery system is failing to cope with, and the overflowing mortuaries now turning away bodies of people dying in their homes because they could not be accommodated in the crowded hospitals. "We're at a bad level," says Professor Sarah Feresu, director of the Institute of Environmental Studies at the University of Zimbabwe, commenting on the city's pollution situation. "But (it's) a level where we can do something and minimise the impact." An unscientific sample of patients picked up by The Financial Gazette at Harare Hospital revealed that most had respiratory related illnesses. Beatrice Infection Hospital, a City of Harare facility dealing exclusively with respiratory illnesses, is overwhelmed and turning away patients. Coincidentally, the hospital, as well as Harare Hospital, is situated right in the heart of the pollution zone, a factor one City of Harare official admitted was a grave mistake on the part of planners. The bulk of residents living with HIV/ AIDS are constantly under attack from TB, a respiratory infection commonly described as "an illness for the poor". But it is not just the industrial operations that are discharging toxic gases into the air. The severity of the economic crisis has resulted in severe limitations in the supply of electricity by the country's sole power utility, resulting in regular power outages which have forced residents into the forests as they resort to cooking using firewood. Wood smoke, according to the Air Pollution Information Network Africa (APINA), has been identified as a significant risk factor for acute respiratory infections in many parts of Africa, including Zimbabwe. Moreover, the City of Harare's administrators have stopped collecting refuse from the suburbs, forcing people to burn the refuse in their backyards, resulting in the degeneration of the quality of air. Some of the rubbish burnt in the backyards includes tyres and plastics. Professor Nimele Sibanda, who lectures clinical immunology at the University of Zimbabwe, says while it is difficult to describe the trend of respiratory infections and asthma because of the absence of a baseline, he had, however, noted an increase in the number of asthma cases in recent years. "There's a big number of people who have asthma now and respiratory diseases like hay fever," says Sibanda, who also runs a clinic in the capital. He contends that pollution also poses a big threat to the immune system. "Immuno-compromised persons will have a lining which is not intact - it's disrupted by infection and air pollution exacerbates the respiratory (illnesses)," says Sibanda. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned Harare's air has crossed set standards, posing a serious risk of acidic rain and respiratory illnesses. The WHO said the capital's air was heavy with a concentration of sulphur and nitrogen dioxide, caused by the combustion of hydrocarbons such as petrol, diesel and coal. Generally, sulphur dioxide concentrations are higher in hot summer seasons than in the cold winter seasons, a health expert in the city indicated. Enditem