The Ministry of Environment and Rwanda Standards Board, in partnership with the Climate and Clean Air Coalition, have hosted a validation workshop for emissions standards and limits for vehicles, thermal power plants and off-road mobile machinery.

The workshop discussed the adverse effects of air pollution in Rwanda and how to mitigate them. It also examined the proposed standards on internal combustion engine emissions and gathered inputs from a wide range of stakeholders in the public and private sectors as well as from civil society.

The workshop was officiated by Juliet Kabera, Director General of Environment and Climate Change at the Ministry of Environment, who invited everyone to participate by sharing their views on the draft standards and thanked partners for their support.

“We are here to discuss air emission standards - a level of pollution you can not go beyond. Today we will examine all sources of air pollution and work together to ensure compliance with the new standards. We are grateful to the Climate and Clean Air Coalition for providing technical assistance to develop these emission standards,” she said.

The workshop began with a presentation about the status of air quality in Rwanda by Dr Jimmy Gasore, an atmospheric scientist and chief scientist at the Rwanda Climate Observatory. Dr Gasore highlighted the effects of pollution on the health of Rwandans, including increased levels of lower respiratory diseases and lung cancer. In Rwanda in 2012, more than 2,200 respiratory-related deaths occurred, of which 22% of death were children under 5 years old. From 2012 to 2015 hospital admissions increased from approximately 1.7 million to 3.3 million.

Dr Gasore shared that while Rwanda has adopted East African Community emission standards governing cement factories and air quality specifications to reduce pollution, the country still lacks vehicle emission standards. He stressed that cars in Rwanda are a particularly large contributor to air pollution because more than 95 per cent are more than 10 years old. The proposed vehicle emission standards have been developed in response to these challenges.

The draft emission standards were presented by Gerphas Opondo, Executive Director of Environmental Compliance Institute. Mr Opondo explained that the standards to be adopted are applicable to all road vehicles, excluding the agricultural tractors, and that they are equivalent to Euro 4.

Once adopted, Rwanda will be the first country in East Africa to have air emission standards for vehicles. Mr Opondo also presented on thermal power plants and environment compliance for non-road mobile machinery such as construction and agricultural machinery powered by diesel or petrol.

Participants engaged in discussion and recommended standards for fuel as the quality of the petrol and diesel being imported goes hand in hand with air emissions. Dr Venant Kayibanda, a Senior Lecturer of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Rwanda, spoke on behalf of all participants to thank the organisers of the workshop and the technical committee in charge of proposing the standards for the hard work as well as those who joined the workshop.

“Thanks for your participation today and giving us a green light to share this document with the public for comments. Standardisation will continue to be done in a transparent way and we will keep providing better services. Standardisation is not only about the environment but also quality. Quality should be the foundation of our culture and future,” said Samuel Mporanzi, Director of Engineering and Urban Planning Standards, Rwanda Standards Board, concluding the workshop.

The draft air emission standards were developed by the Rwanda Standards Board (RSB) with support from the Climate and Clean Air Coalition following a request by the Ministry of Environment for technical support to develop internal combustion engine emission standards. It is upon these standards that enforcement activities against air pollution will be based and checked within the framework of existing laws and regulations. The validated standards will now be shared with the public for comments for a period of two months as per World Trade Organisation requirements.

View photos of the workshop here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/98168367@N06/albums/72157690204207163