ZIEM Mission Statement: Promotion of environmental management and environmental governance in both the private and public sectors, through training, advocacy, lobbying, practice and policy.
ZIEM, through the environmental management programme, implemented phase one of air pollution monitoring in household mining towns to improve the long-term environmental sustainability of communities. The project focused on (ambient) pollutants from smelters in mining townships of Chambishi, Mufulira and Kalulushi and Kitwe Districts of Zambia. Essentially, the project was a practical intervention to operationalize sustainable environmental protection approaches that are appropriate to such communities. It also sought to help local communities survive the difficult conditions created by the mining pollution.
Contact Information
Our Focus
Indoor Air Pollution Monitoring and Modeling Project in Zambia:
Objective: The primary objective of this project is to identify, develop and establish air pollution monitoring and modeling strategy that will enhance public health status in communities.
Rationale: The main problem this project seeks to address is the identification, development and establishment of effective air quality and pollution monitoring and modeling strategies. These strategies will contribute to the development of behavioral change approaches in air pollution and related public health problems. This project will also propose the most effective and cost efficient indoor air pollution models in relation to management and public health.
Air Quality Models: In view of the above situation there are several models of air monitoring and management that can be adopted for Zambia. These include Urban Air Quality Monitoring (UAQM), Operational Street Pollution Model (OSPM), Operational Meteorological Air Quality Models (OML) and Integrated Monitoring and Assessment (IMA). There are very limited monitoring models for indoor air pollution in Zambia. For this study, special attention will be devoted to indoor air quality monitoring and modeling. Modeling provides a link between the emission inventory data and the monitoring data.
The target groups: 15,200 (60% women) communities in Kawambwa, Samfya and Mumbwa that depend on firewood for cooking and heating and kerosene for lighting. Final beneficiaries: Family members of above (91,200) + potentially all 184,200 households. Project Budget: US$ 76,860
Our Experience And Interest In The Four PCIA Central Focus Areas
ZIEM has a rich experience in environmental management having worked for over six years with communities, local authorities, traditional leaders, civil leaders, and regional non-governmental organizations such as Southern Africa Resource Watch (SARW). ZIEM’S has a high interest in social and cultural barriers especially in rural communities where people use traditional fuels and stoves. Their finding indicates that lack of awareness among tradition leaders and inadequate innovations as well as little investment in cooking technologies has contributed to the lager extent to these cultural barriers. ZIEM will draw and share strength and experience of other professionals in other countries manage environmental affairs.
ZIEM has a list of environmental impacts associated with indoor air pollution, environmental monitoring reports and health surveys to mention but few.
ZIEM has been working closely with the Ministry of Environmental Protection, local government and housing authorities in addressing technology standardization challenges at the national level. For example ZIEM is a member of the National Technological Needs Assessment Committee that looks at technological needs in Zambia. This committee has just finished working on the policy brief on low carbon technology. This also looked at cooking technology and standardization process to be managed by Zambia Bureau of Standards and ZIEM has been given an opportunity to handle trainings. This has boosted a lot of interest in technology standardization for cooking, heating and ventilation for our institute.
ZIEM through air pollution projects implemented in Mufulira, Chambishi, Kalulushi and Kitwe has provided them much experience in assessing indoor air pollution exposure and health monitoring in a model setting. ZIEM tracks all prjects by tracking initiatives and resources in nearly all districts in zambia.
Relevant Publications or Studies
Our Contribution to the Partnership
Sharing of documented results of the impact of this project which can be used as a lobbying tool to encourage greater commitment by the Zambian government to supporting environmental management at the National regional and international level.
We would like to participate in this partnership by holding trainings, exchanging ideas, and implementing some pilot projects in the area of indoor air pollution monitoring and modeling in Zambia.
