Autosafety Uganda: Tackling Road Transport Emissions and Crashes from the Source – Rubanga Chapter

The following text was taken from Tackling Road Transport Emissions and Crashes from the Source – Rubanga Chapter by Autosafety Uganda:

The project in Rubaga Division, Kampala, funded under the T-TRIID initiative, focused on raising awareness about the health and environmental impacts of road safety and transport-induced pollution. It targeted communities with a high concentration of automobile repair garages, aiming to reduce road crashes and pollution by promoting change and best practices among motorists and workers in the auto industry, linking local actions, such as poor vehicle maintenance, to broader global issues like public health and climate change, emphasising skill-building and the adoption of safer, environmentally conscious practices through the following activities.

The current maintenance structure of Uganda’s mechanics exposes vehicles to many factors that render emission and safety control systems ineffective or non-functional. The ready availability of counterfeit and fake spare parts, accessories, and consumables on the local market increases its potential for high emissions and an increase in road accidents if the counterfeit spare parts do not work as intended, are not robust enough and fail. Because mechanics and autoparts dealers want to maximise profits while their clients look for budget friendly services; substandard, cheap parts are usually ignorantly considered; and this gradually compromise vehicular emission and safety control systems.

A key objective of this project was to improve the integrity of inbuilt vehicular emission and safety controls while working towards transitioning from reliance on fossil fuels.