00:00Scientists at the University of Witwatersrand have designed South Africa's first app to
00:05warn residents about pollution levels.
00:08It's an innovation that could have been useful to student Phyllisande Shange in Johannesburg.
00:14I couldn't really control my breathing, I couldn't breathe properly.
00:17Shange, who has asthma, says he developed a cough in February and March amid pollution
00:22spikes in Africa's wealthiest city.
00:25He thought his asthma pump could help.
00:30Shange says a medical practitioner linked his condition to poor air quality in Johannesburg.
00:36The city lies near the country's coal mines and the rotten egg smell of sulphur has often
00:41been present in the air.
00:42Coal employs tens of thousands of people and provides three-quarters of South Africa's electricity.
00:48Environment Minister Willy Orkamp attributed the rotten egg smell to hydrogen sulphide emissions
00:54from mining and industrial operations to Johannesburg's east.
00:58That's where South Africa's two biggest polluters, Sarsol and ESCOM, have their largest facilities.
01:04They were both granted extensions to emissions exemptions in 2025.
01:09ESCOM did not respond to a request for comment.
01:12A Sarsol spokesperson said that no operational incidents or abnormal process conditions have
01:18been identified that would indicate an uncontrolled or atypical release of sulphur emissions.
01:24But Dominique Adams, project coordinator of the South African consortium of air quality monitoring
01:30app, said air pollution around Johannesburg was worsening.
01:34So the situation is pretty bad and it's continuously getting worse because also in the surrounding
01:39areas around Johannesburg there's a lot of mining sites and construction sites too which
01:43add to the problems as well.
01:44The app, launching later this year, uses data from hundreds of air monitoring systems.
01:50It sends out notifications and advises residents on protective measures like wearing a mask during
01:56pollution surges.
Comments