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 countryImplementing an air quality index for the country’s major citiesPromoting and adopting Clean Energy and Technology, including as consistent with the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissionsMonitoring the amount of air pollutantsMeasuring the concentration of pollutants in the environmentGeoreferencing the main pollution affected areaTraining air quality techniciansWATER
Collecting information on the sources of contamination of Angola's main water bodies and relevant impacts on health and the environmentImplementing a water quality index for water bodies used as general population supply sourcesPromoting public and private water suppliers’ compliance with the water quality indexSetting a bathing water quality index for rivers and seasRecovery of silted or contaminated rivers and lakesEstablishing drinking water potability standardsEstablishing drinking water microbiological standardsEstablishing turbidity standards for water after filtration or pre-disinfectionEstablishing water potability organoleptic standardsEstablishing drinking water radioactivity standardsMonitoring water quality parametersTraining water quality technicians SOIL
Identifying degraded areas and areas in the process of desertification to define priority actionsRaising the awareness of policy makers about the threats of land degradation and desertificationPromoting crop rotation and livestock grazing techniquesDeveloping a program to fight waste liabilities with the Provincial Governments and in accordance with the Strategic Urban Waste Management PlanSurveying and controlling pesticides, herbicides used in soilsMonitoring the soil restoration, rehabilitation and remediation processEstablishing control measures for the recovery of degraded soilRecovering degraded areasInventorying and georeferencing areas undergoing erosive processesImplementing a program for the remediation of contaminated or polluted areasRecovering silted areasTraining of soil quality techniciansWe 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.