We are presenting you the latest publication of Belgrade Open School, titled „Air quality in the Republic of Serbia – From measurements to measures“. This publication offers analysis of air quality in Serbia, the main pollutants and air pollution sources. In addition, this publication provides an overview of the air quality data, the placement of air quality monitoring stations, reliability of this data and recommendations for improvement.
Air pollution is a topic that has been gaining more and more public attention in the last few years. Interest in the topic of air pollution has drastically started to grow with surge of research and measurements that put air pollution in cities across Serbia in a regional, European and global context. The trigger for a drastic increase in interest in the topic was the ranking of certain cities, such as Belgrade and Valjevo, within the ranking list of the most polluted cities in the world on the Air Visual site, where both Belgrade and Valjevo repeatedly ranked among the most polluted cities. With the increase in the interest of the citizens, the comprehensive media coverage of this problem began, which put the topic of air pollution practically in the first place among all topics of interest to the public. The competent institutions could not remain silent on the interest of citizens in air pollution, but they primarily explained the information on pollution by questioning the methodological sustainability of these rankings. While the exact place on the ranking list of world cities and the methodology by which the quality index is calculated could be questioned, what has become crystal clear is the fact that air pollution in the Republic of Serbia is a problem in itself, whose scale and severity are evident, without a broader context and comparison with other countries. After all, the sites that rank cities by pollution also draw data from official state measuring stations. This is also the case with the Air Visual platform, which makes the assessment for Belgrade on the basis of 3 official measuring stations.
Contrary to the visually appealing and user-fiendly data on the state of air pollution, displayed on websites such as Air Visual, the data on air pollution in official documents of the Republic of Serbia existed as well, but rather hidden. These are the reports of the Environmental Protection Agency, as well as the reports of other institutions responsible for monitoring air quality in local networks. Interpretation of these data, certainly complex and more inaccessible than the sources of information that primarily occupied the public's attention, shows that the official assessment of air quality in the Republic of Serbia - Excessively polluted, for most urban areas. A more detailed review also shows that the air is officially clean mostly in those environments where air quality monitoring is incomplete. By referring to the legal framework defining air protection in the Republic of Serbia, we get an insight into how complex the area is, since in order to protect the air, it defines a number of obligations at different levels of decision-making - from strategic framework at national level to local decision-makers. Research on the application of these regulations shows that, first of all, some of the key regulations in the field of air protection are delayed, and that the application of already adopted regulations does not yield results.
Since the health crisis of global proportions has greatly affected the lives of all of us during this year, the dominant focus of the discussion on air pollution is focused on the harmful impact of polluted air on the health of citizens. A study by the Global Alliance for Health and Pollution (GAHP) showed that the Republic of Serbia ranks first in Europe in terms of deaths from environmental pollution - more precisely, in the number of premature deaths caused by environmental pollution per 100,000 inhabitants. Research focusing on air pollution, such as the 2019 World Health Organization survey, shows that almost 6,600 people die prematurely in Serbia as a result of air pollution.Taking into account the seriousness and complexity of air pollution in the Republic of Serbia on the one hand, as well as recognizing the growing interest of citizens, media and other actors in society on this issue, the authors of this analysis sought to cover some key issues of air protection: air quality status; Air quality monitoring; Pollutants; The biggest sources of pollution; Competence to deal with pollution issues.
The authors hope that the analysis will serve all interested readers to better understand the problem of air pollution, as well as to contribute to shifting of the focus of discussions on air pollution from understanding the problem to finding concrete solutions. From measurement to measurement.
The publication was created within the project "Air Quality, Public Health and COVID19: Research on the Correlation between Air Pollution and COVID-19 in Serbia", which was conducted by the Belgrade Open School with the support of the British Embassy in Belgrade.
You can download the complete text of the publication in Serbian HERE.
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