Uganda Kampala Capital City - Improve Air Quality

 The Uganda Kampala Capital City project under the AQ Fellowship includes development of an emissions inventory and air quality modeling and forecasting. Dr. Anondo Mukherjee has been matched with the Uganda Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) project team led by Mr. Edison Masereka, Manager Research and Business Development, and Mr. Sadam Yiga Kiwanuka, Project Officer. The city has an air quality monitoring system and network in place for measuring PM concentrations, including 25 low-cost monitors, along with Embassy Kampala monitoring station, and 5 weather stations. Initial assessments indicate that emission sources include vehicles, dust, household burning, and industrial facilities. KCCA would like to develop an emissions inventory that supports planning and the development of necessary control decisions to reduce and mitigate air pollution.

The Fellowship kick-off meeting was in January 2020. Dr. Mukherjee will have regular technical discussions and training events with the Uganda-KCCA project team. He tentatively plans to travel to Uganda Kampala for in-country collaboration meetings in 2020. The Fellowship period will continue from January 2020 and into 2021.

High Level Goal 1: Develop an emission inventory for air pollution in Kampala

• Gather the necessary activity data and estimate emissions from emission sources.
• Develop technical capacity in source apportionment.
• Conduct 8 stakeholder workshops to present the emission inventory report and solicit feedback.
• Provide information to the public and industry to encourage compliant behavior and activities to reduce emissions and pollution.

High Level Goal 2: Develop the capacity for air quality monitoring in Kampala

• Develop KCCA technical capacity on air quality monitoring technology.
• Advise KCCA on air quality monitoring network organization and station siting.
• Advise KCCA on air quality monitoring within the context of regulatory framework development compliance.

High Level Goal 3: Modeling, forecasting, and data analysis

• Improve air quality decision-making by local, regional, and national planners.
• Advise AirQo (project stakeholder) on data analysis techniques to leverage the data from their sensor network.
• Use data analysis and air quality modeling to better understand the air quality environment of Kampala and the emissions and processes that lead to poor air quality.

Other Ugandan groups that participate in the air quality project, in addition to the lead agency Uganda KCCA, include Uganda National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), the Makerere University, AirQo, East African Geo Health Hub, Ministry of Water and Environment, and Uganda Manufacturers Association.

For project first steps, the Fellow began with a technical air quality overview (big picture technical approach), and the Uganda KCCA project team shared monitoring data and information, including a preliminary air quality baseline assessment with identified emission sources, governance framework, shape files, vehicle emissions testing, current research papers with speciation and PM composition, weather data from local weather stations, etc. Dr. Mukherjee and KCCA discussed current and previous air quality monitoring conducted in Uganda by KCCA, AirQo, and Makerere University. Dr. Mukherjee also conducted a literature review on relevant scientific studies regarding air quality in East Africa, he assessed daily and seasonal PM2.5 over a two-year time period, and then presented preliminary health impacts of PM2.5 in Kampala, based on a two-year average PM2.5 and exposure response relationship developed by Apte et al. 2015. They began discussions on air quality monitoring technology and a chemical speciation study.

The Fellow and the Uganda-KCCA project team have arranged to meet remotely every other week, alternating each time with training events and then a project technical discussion and working meeting to address questions and work on practice problems in tandem.

Across the larger Fellowship program, the two Fellows who are working with Uganda project teams have arranged a coordination meeting every other Friday to jointly discuss their respective projects. Note: As a synergy-building effort, the Uganda-NEMA team are invited to participate in all Uganda-KCCA training sessions, and the Fellow for Uganda-NEMA also participates in the KCCA training sessions and meetings.

2020 Technical Training Sessions for KCCA  

• Introduction to Air Quality Science and Introduction to Emission Inventory Work – Technical Framework
• Air Quality Network Development - Considerations for Siting Air Quality Monitor Stations
• Emissions Inventory Quantification

2020 Technical Training Sessions for NEMA  

• Air Quality Science, Air Quality Standards, and Air Quality Management – presented in collaboration with Ms. Amy Zimpfer