Poti Government Approves Citizen Petition for Permanent Air Quality Monitoring in the City
EWMI ACCESS recently supported the CSO Human Rights and Social Justice Research Center with the launch of a civic campaign advocating for cleaner air and addressing flooding problem in the town of Poti.This resulted in the creation of the online platform “Poti Citizens for their Own Rights” aimed at studying ecological problems and engaging with citizens in order to put forward a coordinated resolution. The platform also released a petition demanding the setting up of automatic measuring stations for permanent monitoring of air quality in Poti. The petition reached its signatures goal in just about two days, and was submitted to the municipal government. After review, the municipal government agreed with the request to install automatic air monitoring stations in the two most contaminated locations in Poti. The National Environmental Agency has been commissioned to install two stations in close coordination with the petition authors. Before this installation, a temporary mobile air monitoring station was placed next to the Poti port.
The citizens also reached a verbal agreement with the local authorities to make laboratory tests among children living in the most polluted areas, in order to measure levels of heavy metals in their blood. Civic activists continue to actively monitor the air pollution levels in Poti.
