South Africa: Gauteng's Air Quality Monitoring Choking With Most Stations Offline in SA's Most Polluted Province

By Julia Evans

Only 39% of Gauteng's air quality monitoring stations are fully operational, leaving residents 'monitoring-blind' to hazardous levels of pollution in the province.

Only 39% of Gauteng's air quality monitoring stations are fully operational, leaving residents 'monitoring-blind' to hazardous levels of pollution in the province.

Gauteng, the most polluted province in South Africa, now has just 39% of its municipal air quality monitoring stations operating as they should be.

Gauteng's new MEC for Environment, Ewan Botha, confirmed to Daily Maverick that of the province's 31 municipal-owned stations, only 12 are fully operational. A further three are partially operational, while 16 are completely non-operational.

The operational stations measure a range of pollutants: six monitor ozone, seven nitrogen dioxide, four carbon monoxide, 10 coarse particulate matter (PM₁₀), five fine particulate matter (PM₂.₅) and 12 sulphur dioxide.

Democratic Alliance environment spokesperson Leanne de Jager first flagged the crisis in March with then-MEC Sheila Peters. Peters admitted in a written reply that 13 stations were fully operational at the time, though nearly half of those could only upload raw data due to budget shortfalls. Ten stations were completely offline.

"Without functioning monitoring networks, authorities cannot issue timely health warnings, assess compliance with air quality standards, or take urgent action when pollution reaches dangerous levels," said De Jager.

Since then, the network has deteriorated further, with only 12...

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