Group Trains Rural Women On Air Quality Monitoring

A gender based advocacy group, Greenleaf Advocacy and Empowerment Center, February 9, trained community women on the use of air quality monitoring equipment to check pollution.
The training, which held at Aleto, Eleme, Rivers State, engaged rural women from several communities across the Eleme Local Government Area.
Also in attendance were expert environmentalists, who took participants through what constitutes air pollution and educated them on air quality reading of particulate matters using android phones and air note monitor methods. The project was a sensor based case study of Ogale Eleme.,
The women and a few men in their midst were educated on the fora and opportunity to engage stakeholders in this pursuit, especially, as Eleme is one of the adversely polluted environments due to the extractive activities of multinational corporations.
They were advised to identify key drivers of air pollution in their area and engage them through varied means, including writing to them, environmental websites, speaking up at public hearings, annual report presentations and on international days for the environment.
For stronger impact, participants were advised to carry out their engagements by building a network of community and civil-based groups for action while building their knowledge base on pollution issues, using data to challenge claims by the polluting companies.
The project facilitator, Nne Umoren, in her opening address had said the capacity building event was the outcome of a research on the effect of oil spill on women in Eleme in particular, and the Niger Delta in general.
Drawing attention to Indorama’s constant discharge of waste in the air, which affects women’s breathing negatively, Umoren said armed with complaints from Eleme women, she enquired from Indorama’s liaison officers the impact of the petro-chemical industry’s discharge but the officials claimed the emission from the company was not harmful.
Determined to push further, she got involved with a group that installs a monitoring equipment that helps achieve healthy air which according to her, Greenleaf Advocacy and Empowerment Center is now building women capacity to access for clean air, and advocating for companies to efficiently manage their waste.
Highlight of the event was the experimental exercises with the sensor based air equipment.