The environmental change sweeping the world is occurring at a faster pace than previously thought, making it imperative that governments act now to reverse the damage.
A study published by UNEP shows that the world shares a host of common environmental threats that are rapidly intensifying in many parts of the world.
In Kenya and the entire African continent, land degradation, air pollution, and the provision of sanitation and safe drinking water are among the main problems.
Many of the region’s fisheries, both inland and marine, face overexploitation from illegal, under-reported and unregulated fishing.
The upside is that the continent has an opportunity to use its large young population to drive its growth. Low-carbon, climate-resilient choices can develop the continent’s infrastructure, accelerate industrialisation, increase energy and food production, and promote sustainable natural resource governance.
Indoor air pollution is responsible for 600,000 premature deaths every year in Africa. The continent’s reliance on the use of biomass for cooking, lighting and heating means that 90 per cent of the region’s population is exposed to this health threat.
The proportion of the population served with clean water is increasing and grew from 64 per cent in 2005 to 68 per cent in 2012, although absolute numbers of people without safe drinking water remain high.
More than half of the population in sub-Saharan Africa still does not have any access to improved sanitation, compared to 90 per cent coverage in North Africa, with a vast difference between urban and rural areas.
African megacities such as Cairo, Kinshasa and Lagos, and emerging megacities such as Dar es Salaam, Johannesburg and Luanda, face challenges from poor management of sanitation services due to inadequate and deteriorating infrastructure resulting from underinvestment.
Land-based activities causing pollution of freshwater bodies ultimately impact coastal and marine resources.
In Africa, the second largest continent in the world, land is the most prized asset for food production, nutritional health and economic development. Worryingly, about 500,000 square metres of land in Africa is being degraded due to soil erosion, salinisation, pollution and deforestation. This land degradation can damage agricultural productivity, nutrition and human health.
A growing population and a rise in the demand for firewood will mean that forest cover in Africa is likely to continue shrinking, declining to less than 600 million hectares by 2050. Over cultivation, inefficient irrigation practices, overgrazing, the overexploitation of resources, uncontrolled mining activities and climate change will further degrade land in Africa, the UNEP report states.
This will lead to reduced agricultural productivity and food security, which can increase migration and spread disease, the destruction of infrastructures such as roads and bridges, and high rates of poverty.