Rwanda to start using electric cars

Rwanda announced that they are going to start using electric cars and bikes instead of the ones using gasoline in order to prevent air pollution in the city of Rwanda.

60% that pollutes the air in the cities of Rwanda especially in Kigali comes from cars and bikes. The air pollution is seen mostly in those vehicles that uses gasoline and of fuel oil.

The minister of environment Dr. Vincent Biruta says that trainings on the requirements of having electric vehicles that will replace vehicles that uses gasoline will be introduced in the coming two weeks. He believes that this project will be given enough attention and will not be like the recent project of fuel oil in crops that was not well finalized.

"For me as I see it today and as the training will show it to us I think that choosing well is to use electric vehicles because we have the capability of producing fuel oil ourselves because there are what we produce and we are able to increase the quantity we want, we don’t have to export things abroad as we do it on oil we use daily. And we can’t find soil to plant on crops that can be needed in biodiesel and have another soil for agriculture, animal husbandry so that we can find what to provide to Rwandans those are things we have to put on a balance  that’s why the project was never continued." Dr. Vincent Biruta / the minister of environment

In Rwanda vehicles that uses fuel oil and gasoline each year invest 900tones of 3 types of air pollution. The research shows that air pollution in Kigali city is on a higher level than of the OMS.

Jimmy Gasore a professor in the University of Rwanda and a researcher on air pollution confirms that there are bad hours of the morning and the evening where vehicles circulate and that’s when the air is so much polluted.

"You might find that it is in 3 days in a month and also it depends on the location of someone who is at nyabugogo will see a severe air pollution than the person who is at Gacuriro and Nyarutarama because that is where so many vehicles meet. It happens but also there are times where you will find that the measurement is up and during the day when vehicles are few and the measurements will go down that is why people have to always measuring so that they get information for a long time  that can help the country to take policies for a long time that prevents air pollution" Jimmy Gasore / a professor in the university of Rwanda

In the week for environment will take place on 25 may up to 5^th June, it is planned that Rwandans will be shown how their environment is terms of air pollution as the director general of the ministry of environment in Rwanda Eng. Coletha Ruhamya explains it.

"We will have a different supervision while measuring the air being sent by factories, we will also measure cars on the road showing people that these cars of ours that we use for transportation, that if we don’t maintain them well or if we keep on buying old cars coming from elsewhere while they have been used is one of what destroys our environment." Eng. Coletha Ruhamya

In 2016, Rwanda set a law of protecting the environment and suppressing what destroys it.

6.5 of people die each year because of respiratory diseases caused by air pollution.