Environmental expert has expressed concern over the rising incidence of uncontrolled burnings in various parts of Lusaka.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Zambia Business Times, environmentalist Joe Nkandaani stressed the worrying prevalence of uncontrolled burning, particularly in the early morning hours, and its potential adverse effects on air quality.
Nkandaani underlined the significant impact of smoke and resulting air pollution on public health, citing concerns over respiratory diseases such as cancer, bronchitis, and asthma, which can be exacerbated by poor air quality.
He also underscored the potential financial burden on the government for treating illnesses caused by air pollution.
“When we wake up in the morning it is very shocking to see the amount of smoke in the atmosphere which eventually causes air pollution, now as you know air pollution is very dangerous because it leads to several dangerous respiratory diseases such as Cancers, bronchitis, those who have asthma they also begin to suffer.” He said.
He has further appealed to the Ministry responsible for the environment and green economy on the need to start sensitizing people as well as begin to enforce the laws that are available In order to stop this cage of unnecessary burning of solid waste.
“You’ll see that this solid waste burning usually happens along the rail line from Chawama way back to near Lilayi because all that area has been turned into a dumping site, so you find that in the morning as well as within the night people begin to burn that solid waste which consists of plastics, paper and all sorts of waste that is available, now this air that people begin to breath will cause a lot of serious problems to people’s health.” He explained.
Furthermore, Nkandaani has urged the general public to start dumping garbage in designated areas where the local authorities or those responsible for collecting garbage will be able to collect it and be able to dispose of it at designated dump sites.
He further added that residents should not be freely dumping waste or solid waste indiscriminately as it eventually comes back to affect them as well as the people around by breathing contaminated air as well as drinking contaminated water.
