What do we breathe and what can we do about it?
AirGE: civic air pollution monitoring in Georgia
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According to the World Health Organisation, Georgia's capital Tbilisi is among Europe's top three most polluted metropolises. Nearly four thousand people die annually due to long-term exposure to smog. It also damages the potencial of the city, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, for tourism. Pollution is caused by obsolete power plants and heavy industry, and cars in poor technical condition.
Clean air for Georgia
The first step on the road to improving Georgia's air is reliable information. Nowadays, state authorities operate only seven up-to-date automated air quality stations. In the similarly sized Czech Republic, there are about two hundred of such devices. In cooperation with volunteers of the civic initiative Green Pole, Arnika manufactures the AirGE air monitoring stations. Gradually, a network is being created directly involving inhabitants of polluted towns. In the future, it will be possible to identify the sources of pollution from the data collected and seek for solutions.
Arnika has experience creating citizen air pollution monitoring networks in Belarus and Ukraine. These actions are supported by the Transtion Promotion Programme of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic.
Information in Czech
