Unlike most parts of the world, Malawi?s levels of air pollution are not yet alarming this has been proved so recently from some several research that have been conducted. This is the case in Malawi probably due to some reasons like though not limited to slowly growing industrialization, small number of vehicles? emissions etcetera. According to preceding sections, Malawi?s air quality is still not alarming. However, urbanization, population growth, increasing number of vehicles and booming industrial activity, very soon the current status might be surpassed and health implications of poor air quality will be a significant contribution to hospital cases.

According to research that was conducted by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) in Malawi 2015, it described country level policies that will impact air quality and for Malawi the following policies were endorsed as to keep the levels of air pollution low

1.       Reduce emissions from industries like tobacco processing, tea, sugar and sawmills

2.       Reduce emissions from transport, vehicles being the largest source.

3.       Reduce emissions from biomass burning as Malawi?s energy balance is dominated by biomass (firewood, charcoal, agricultural and industrial wastes), which accounts for 97% of the Total primary energy supply.

4.       Reduce emissions from waste burning as uncontrolled waste burning is one of the practices that contributes to deteriorating air quality in urban centres , agricultural waste burning can also impact air quality in the rural areas, due to the waste composition (plastics, waste tires, and other organic/inorganic materials) unregulated waste burning can be a source of health impairing emissions such as dioxins.

In an attempt to minimize the use of biomass fuels the government of Malawi has undertaken a number of initiatives including the Program for Biomass Energy Conservation (ProBEC) which seeks to promote the use of clay stoves to save fuel the Promotion of Alternative Energy Sources Project (PAESP) which seeks to promote non-traditional fuels for cooking and heating to reduce environmental degradation and a National Sustainable and Renewable Energy Programme (NSREP) which promotes renewable energy technologies in Malawi.

The Malawi Rural Electrification Project (MAREP) has also been established.

Refferences

http://www.unep.org/Transport/Airquality/Malawi.pdf

http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/jep.2013.411146

http://www.numbeo.com/pollution/country_result.jsp?country=Malawi