‘Enjoy the fresh air while it lasts! Lockdown causes drop in SA air pollution’ 8 May 2020

A team of local and British scientists says air pollution levels have dropped by almost half in some parts of South Africa during the six-week Covid-19 lockdown, mainly because of lower emissions from Eskom power stations and heavy industry and an absence of bumper-to-bumper traffic. The team, led by Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) principal researcher Prof Rebecca Garland, says preliminary analysis suggests that sulphur dioxide pollution levels have dropped by 47% on the Highveld since the lockdown began on 27 March, while nitrogen dioxide levels appear to have dropped by 23% over the same period. This may be little comfort to people facing hunger or crippling job losses because of the lockdown, but air pollution is nevertheless a major global killer.

Garland and her colleagues suggest that Eskom’s coal-fired power stations and heavy industry are South Africa’s largest sources of sulphur dioxide emissions, while the largest sources of nitrogen oxide pollution were from vehicle exhaust fumes, mining, fuel refineries and Eskom power stations. South Africa’s latest air pollution results mirror some of the dramatic reductions reported from China, Europe, the USA and other heavily-industrialised areas since the Covid-19 lockdowns began. Last month, Eskom also confirmed that electricity demand had dropped by as much as 9,000 MW a day during lockdown (roughly one third of the average pre-lockdown daily demand of 28,000 MW).