In South Africa, the city of Johannesburg wants to fight against air pollution

This Saturday marks the UN’s “International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies.” According to a recent study, more than 5,000 people died in 2019 because of Johannesburg’s poor air quality. By joining the “Breathe Cities” network, South Africa’s largest city is committing to tackling the problem.

With our correspondent in Johannesburg, Claire Bargelès

Due to the presence of petrochemical industries and coal-fired power stations nearby, as well as its topography, which means that air circulates poorly, Johannesburg regularly experiences excessively high concentrations of fine particles.

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This has direct effects on health, and therefore on the municipality’s budget, according to Tebogo Modiba, director of environmental services for the city: ” We realized that we have always treated air pollution issues as secondary issues. But it does not make sense to invest money only in health, and not in managing poor air quality. »

In order to combat pollution, it is important to be able to measure it. And for this, scientists from Wits University have just developed a more efficient system, made of small connected boxes.

- RFI