MOTOR VEHICLES POLLUTION IN HARAR TOWN, EASTERN ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Motor vehicles pollutants are the main sources of traffic pollution which causes adverse health effect on people. These problems are likely to be particularly acute in the rapidly growing cities of the developing world if uncontrolled growth of the vehicle fleet is allowed to take place. Similarly, Harar town was facing a rapid increase in air pollution due to increasing number of automobiles which do not follow emission standards set by various environmental agencies. The study was conducted in Harar town on 2488 motor vehicles which registered between 2011- 2015 year. The objective of the study was to estimate the emission amount of pollutants released from the vehicles. The data was collected through survey of six days of a week from Monday to Saturday by counting number of vehicle fleets. Descriptive statistical tools such as mean and percentage were used to summarize and analyze the data. The study used classified vehicle count based on the main COPERT model vehicle classification and China’s emission standards for estimating emissions from motor vehicles. The pollutants were burned and released with the exhaust emissions and evaporative emissions from vehicles fuel system, engine and fuel tanks. The result show that, the daily estimated emission amount of carbon monoxide (CO), hydro carbons (HC), nitrous oxides (NOX) and particulate matter (PM) was about 488.87 kg, 123.35 kg, 96.15 kg and 11.5 kg, respectively. The total daily estimated emission amounts of four pollutants were 719.9 kg and the total yearly estimated emission amounts of these pollutants were also about 262652.5 kg. In addition, the result of our analysis shows that the estimated emission amounts of pollutants in the town from motor vehicles were increasing with an increasing number of motor vehicles. In order to save the environmental condition, it is important to adapt the international emission standards and relating to local condition to protect the surrounding from the motor vehicles pollution.