Ambient Air Quality Monitoring and Audit over Athi River Township, Kenya

Abstract

Monitoring of air pollution is an active area of research. A numbers of agencies; environmental, health and governments consider access to clean unpolluted air as a basic requirement for human, plant, animal and environmental health. As many countries develop and move up socio-economic scale, emissions will increase, rising pollution levels and causing health concerns. It is therefore paramount that ad hoc and continuous monitoring be undertaken to ascertain air pollutant levels. This study presents a statistical analysis of selected air pollutants from Athi River Township, Kajiado County in Kenya. The data was collected over three sites downwind of the township that are highly exposed to pollutants from Athi River town. The study was carried out using various gas analyzers and samplers mounted in a Mobile Air Monitoring Laboratory van. Concentration of particulate matter was generally high in the morning and late evening hours. The concentration was found to be above World Health Organisation air quality levels; the mean 24 hours of PM2.5 was 30.74 μg/m3 exceeding WHO limit of 25 μg/m3.The concentration of Black Carbon was found to range from medium to extremely high concentration in the region. However, the compounds of nitrogen, sulphur and hydrogen are generally low. To improve air quality in Athi River, mitigation measures such as limiting the establishment of more high energy-consuming industries and prioritize the use of clean energy sources. The study faced challenges in categorizing the concentration of the pollutants, calling for finalisation of air quality regulations and guidelines.