The National Environmental Quality Program (Portuguese acronym: PNQA) was approved in Angola by Presidential Decree 138/20, of 19 May 2020. The act came into force on the same day.
The PNQA implements Law 5/98, of 19 June (the Environment Framework Law), the protection of natural resources and the quality of life of citizens being its overarching principles. The act seeks to drive the implementation of policies to achieve environmental quality, and to prevent and/or minimize negative impacts, in order to avoid future recovery or mitigation costs and ensure sustainability for future generations.
The PNQA is especially aimed at improving the quality of life of Angolan citizens residing in urban, peri-urban and rural areas. It focuses on improving air, water and soil quality, by implementing specific measures, while boosting and falling in step with the different short-, medium- and long-term Government plans and programs.
The PNQA lists several measures for each of those sectors, namely:
AIR
Collecting and updating information on sources of air emissions and their impact on health and the environment, to prepare a National Emission Plan (Portuguese acronym: PNE)
Preparing a Presidential Decree to regulate emissions of air pollutants in line with international commitments and defining the air quality standards sought for the country
Implementing an air quality index for the country’s major cities
Promoting and adopting Clean Energy and Technology, including as consistent with the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions
Monitoring the amount of air pollutants
Measuring the concentration of pollutants in the environment
Georeferencing the main pollution affected areas
Training air quality technicians
WATER
Collecting information on the sources of contamination of Angola's main water bodies and relevant impacts on health and the environment
Implementing a water quality index for water bodies used as general population supply sources
Promoting public and private water suppliers’ compliance with the water quality index
Setting a bathing water quality index for rivers and seas
Recovery of silted or contaminated rivers and lakes
Establishing drinking water potability standards
Establishing drinking water microbiological standards
Establishing turbidity standards for water after filtration or pre-disinfection
Establishing water potability organoleptic standards
Establishing drinking water radioactivity standards
Monitoring water quality parameters
Training water quality technicians
SOIL
Identifying degraded areas and areas in the process of desertification to define priority actions
Raising the awareness of policy makers about the threats of land degradation and desertification
Promoting crop rotation and livestock grazing techniques
Developing a program to fight waste liabilities with the Provincial Governments and in accordance with the Strategic Urban Waste Management Plan
Surveying and controlling pesticides, herbicides used in soils
Monitoring the soil restoration, rehabilitation and remediation process
Establishing control measures for the recovery of degraded soil
Recovering degraded areas
Inventorying and georeferencing areas undergoing erosive processes
Implementing a program for the remediation of contaminated or polluted areas
Recovering silted areas
Training of soil quality technicians
We foresee that the implementation of the above-listed measures will involve significant changes to the environmental legal framework currently in force, with impact on the activity carried out by public and private entities, especially as regards compliance with new environmental obligations.