THE World Health Organization (WHO) is drumming up concern on air pollution as it prepares to convene the first Global Conference on Air Pollution and Health (30 October – 1 November 2018) to bring governments and partners together in a global effort to improve air quality and combat climate change.
The latest data from WHO shows that nine out of 10 people breathe air containing high levels of pollutants and that an estimated seven million people in the world die every year because of ambient (outdoor) and household air pollution.
Further, WHO data shows that the highest ambient air pollution levels are in the Eastern Mediterranean Region and in South-East Asia, with annual mean levels often exceeding more than 5 times WHO limits, followed by low and middle-income cities in Africa and the Western Pacific.
That's us, up there: Southeast Asia, and it's no joke because it just keeps on worsening, every year.
Major sources of air pollution are from inefficient use of energy by households, industry, the agriculture and transport sectors, and coal-fired power plants.
"Air pollution threatens us all, but the poorest and most marginalized people bear the brunt of the burden," says WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
"If we don't take urgent action on air pollution, we will never come close to achieving sustainable development."
It thus pushed governments to invest in energy-efficient power generation, improve domestic industry and municipal waste management, reduce agricultural waste incineration, forest fires, and certain agro-forestry activities, make greener and more compact cities with energy-efficient buildings, provide universal access to clean, affordable fuels and technologies for cooking, heating, and lightings, and build safe and affordable public transport systems and pedestrian- and cycle-friendly networks.
Indeed, everything we do impacts our environment, but we have to seriously think about the options we can take while the city's air is not yet among the worst.
The city, for one, is laid out such that it has a core, which can easily be transformed into a no-car exclusively for pedestrians and bicyclists zone. Then we can have a downtown that has very low smoke emission and a layout that encourages walking and cycling, thus not only reducing our chances of acquiring diseases caused by pollution, that includes heart ailments and cancer, but also enhances our health through exercise.
Let's not be lulled into complacency because the problem is not that big yet. Let us work for a healthier environment while we still have a relatively healthy environment to bank on. We can start by demanding similar actions from our barangay councils.