Nairobi, 6th April 2024
Nairobi City County has partnered with Clean Air Fund and Breathe Cities in developing City owned Air Quality Information Management System and publicly accessible Air Quality Data Portal.
According to the Deputy Director for Climate Change and Air Quality Monitoring Mr Maurice Kavai, once complete the data management system will allow the City County to collect and analyze air quality data through a network of low cost sensors and generate data that would be accessible to the residents, institutions and researchers.
“We express our gratitude to Clean Air Fund and Breathe Cities partners for selecting Nairobi as one of the cities for the Breathe Nairobi initiative’s project. The City leadership is willing and ready to support and deliver on this project. Stated Mr. Kavai.
The Climate Change and Air Quality monitoring Deputy Director spoke at a meeting held between Nairobi City County, Clean Air Fund and C40 Cities to discuss and refine the draft Breathe Nairobi Strategy, that seeks to ensure air pollution reduction in the City through multi-faceted regulatory approach for identified key emitting sectors, advancement in waste management, clean transportation options and industrial practices and training of county staff to effectively use Air Quality regulations and Air Quality monitoring network to improve air quality management in Nairobi.
Breathe Nairobi Strategy aims at development and enactment of Nairobi City County Air Quality regulations to operationalize relevant Nairobi City Acts and adopt national regulations and standards.
Mr. Victor Indasi from Clean Air Fund mentioned that once the strategy is approved, it will undergo validation process and there after the implementation will begin immediately.
The participants actively engaged in discussing the draft strategy as well as selecting potential areas of the project such as development and enactment of Nairobi Air Quality regulations, capacity building trainings, use of art and storytelling to engage with community audience, procurement and deployment of comprehensive low cost sensor Air Quality monitoring network and data and research among others.
County Assistant Director Climate Change and Air Quality, Ms. Grace Ojiayo said that the County is committed to offer total support to ensure the project is completed at the set timelines. She expressed her confidence that the project will be a success, where other cities can come and benchmark with Nairobi.
C40 Cities team consisting of Ms. Seneca Naidoo and Mr. Tibebu Assefa who participated virtually appreciated Nairobi County’s commitment towards ensuring clean air for the city residents. They also appreciated the partnership and support from the City County.
The meeting was attended by Climate Change and Air Quality monitoring Unit, Environment and representatives from County Transport and ICT Sector.
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