Air pollution costs MENA $141bn, claims 270k lives each year, World Bank warns

Air pollution costs the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region around $141 billion annually, or 2 per cent of its economic output according to a new report by the World Bank.

The report entitled “Blue Skies, Blue Seas: Air Pollution, Marine Plastics, and Coastal Erosion in the Middle East and North Africa” focuses on the degradation of the so-called “blue” natural assets in the MENA region (such as clean air, healthy seas and coastlines) and found that its biggest cities are second only to those in South Asia in terms of air pollution levels, where the average urban resident breathes in amount to over ten times the level considered safe by the World Health Organisation.

The region’s air pollution also causes almost 270,000 deaths per year, with the average resident falling ill for 60 days in his lifetime due to air pollution.

“Productivity falls if residents cannot work after they or their family members fall ill from air pollution, and health care costs can be a substantial burden on both individuals and governments,” stated the report.

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In a press release, the World Bank’s Vice President for the MENA, Ferid Belhaj, explained that “Polluted skies and seas are costly to the health, social and economic wellbeing of millions of people in the Middle East and North Africa region.”

“As countries recover from Covid-19, there is an opportunity to change course and choose a greener, bluer and more sustainable growth path that has fewer emissions and less environmental degradation.”

Additionally, the Mediterranean Sea was identified in the report as having one of the highest levels of plastic pollution in the world, with the region’s residents thought to dump more than six kilogrammes of waste into its waters ever year.

The Mediterranean has “as much plastic flowing into it each year as the volume of fish taken out from the two most commonly caught species,” highlighted the report.

To address the issue of air pollution, the report recommended that the countries in the region enforce stricter emissions standards, pricing the cost of air pollution and reforming fossil fuel subsidies. In tackling the problem of marine plastic pollution, it also urged nations to improve solid waste management creating reliable market structures for recycling markets, and collaborating with the private sector for plastic alternatives.

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