Year: 2020
Type: article
Abstract: Some observations about air quality in dense, lowincome settlementsFor decades, research on air pollution in low-income urban areas of South Africa has emphasised domestic solid fuel burning as an important source of pollution.In the Vaal Triangle and Mpumalanga Highveld, domestic coal use, especially for space heating in winter, was the subject of much research and a number of successful interventions.Formalisation of housing, electrification, reduced availability of coal burning devices (due to the closing of the Falkirk plant in Newcastle and the fact that paint is not sold in metal tins anymore) in addition to above inflation increases in the price of coal, lead to a steady decrease in the proportion of households who use coal.A recent analysis of long-term trends in air quality in the Vaal Triangle Airshed Priority Area and the Highveld Priority Area (Feig et al. 2019) showed that there is indeed a steady, albeit in some cases slow, decrease in particulate concentrations in these areas.There is certainly progress in the fight against air pollution in low-income urban areas.There are however counter forces.I will briefly discuss the following: population growth, urbanisation, electricity price increases and supply disruptions, collapse of infrastructure and failure of services.
Source: Clean Air Journal
Author: Christiaan Pauw
Institution: Nova Institute
Language: English
Subfield: Pollution
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W3039733589