Air pollution levels worldwide, particularly in Africa, are reaching worrying records. According to environmentalists, at least nine out of ten people breathe polluted air on the continent. The consequences range from an increased burden of chronic heart and lung diseases and cancers to premature mortality. Access to current and accurate data plays a crucial role in tackling urban air pollution, but establishing a continuous monitoring infrastructure poses significant challenges for many African cities. Budgetary limitations remain a significant barrier to establishing a robust and reliable data collection infrastructure, essential for creating and delivering targeted air pollution interventions.
The Clean Air African Network project is an ongoing multinational project in East Africa (Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya) and West Africa (Cameroon, Ghana, and Nigeria) sponsored by the U.S. Department of State. In this project, low-cost sensors made by engineers at Makerere University in Uganda are deployed in African cities to collect real-time data on air pollution from fine particulate matter (PM1, PM2.5, and PM10) and make it accessible to the public via a mobile application and a web platform. The objective is to raise citizens’ awareness of air pollution risks and to encourage authorities to act. As part of this project, through the HoPiT research group, ten (10) low-cost sensors will be deployed in the city of Yaoundé.
This one-day workshop will attempt to bring together various stakeholders working on air quality in Yaoundé. The workshop aimed to consolidate the stakeholder landscape in Yaoundé and provide a platform to promote advocacy and participatory and inclusive management of air quality in the city of Yaoundé through the understanding and use of a low-cost sensor network and digital solutions for data management to drive the adoption of contextual air quality data for decision-making.
