PCAA is a civil society alliance that began with a small group of concerned individuals and one crowd-sourced air quality monitor in 2020. PCAA has over 150 members, and through several partnerships has deployed a network of twenty-three PM2.5 monitors across all major cities in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Its next steps are policy-focused and include using data it produces to help guide governmental budget priorities, regulations and policies from green transport to improved waste management.
“Most of us are either residents of Peshawar or are frequent visitors. We observed significant systemic gaps in air quality monitoring, related policies and even communication. More importantly, no one was actively addressing a critical issue that impacts both human health and the environment. It was this realization that motivated us to work on improving Peshawar’s air quality by generating solid evidence to advocate for effective policies.” – Taimur Khan
Country Profile (Pakistan): Opportunity Score 8.2 (Medium-High): Annual average PM2.5 levels are more than 8.5 times the WHO guideline. There is no public PM2.5 data produced by the government, but there is a national ambient air quality standard for PM2.5.