Investigating the impact of COVID-19 lockdowns on environmental health in Kuwait

Abstract EN

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) was announced as a global pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11, 2020.

In response, the State of Kuwait applied a series of three lockdown measures in 2020.

Previous research highlighted the positive impact of lockdown measures on environmental health and safety by reducing air pollution levels.

While this prior work demonstrated the effectiveness of lockdown measures on reducing pollution levels in different geographical locations, there is limited evidence that shows whether the lockdowns implemented in Kuwait were effective in terms of reducing air pollution.

Thus, the main goal of this study was to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown measures taken in Kuwait on the concentrations of the following pollutants: Particulate Matter 2.5 (PM2.5), Particulate Matter 10 (PM10), Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2), and Ozone (O3).

Data from two different air monitoring stations (Aljahra and Alahmadi) was used to compare pollution levels from three lockdown intervals – two partial lockdowns and one total lockdown.

A sequential approach was utilized in the current study where air quality data during the three lockdown periods was compared with air quality data during the pre-lockdown period.

The main findings indicated that NO2 concentrations decreased by 48%, 63%, and 48% after the first partial, total lockdown, and second partial lockdowns, respectively in Aljahra station.

Meanwhile, Ozone concentrations increased by 30-100% across all lockdown periods for both stations.

Finally, PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations did not decrease after the total lockdown.

This research urges public policy experts to consider immediate measures to mitigate the environmental, health, and safety risks posed by air pollution.