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Description
The air quality in Bucharest is the poorest in Europe, being the city with the highest social cost per capita per year, a cost associated with health problems caused by pollution.
The action for clean air project aims at strengthening democratic culture and civic awareness, through the participation of citizens in projects to improve air quality in Bucharest and in decision-making processes at the local level, by supporting 3 public policies. The project activities will lead to an increased involvement of citizens in communities, by carrying out three projects to identify and pilot local solutions to improve air quality, by three local initiative groups/small NGOs in Bucharest, coordinated by our organizations. The 3 initiatives will be implemented, analyzed and promoted in communities, with the direct participation of the citizens and local public authorities or institutions. In the same time, will be increased the level of citizens involvement in decision-making processes at local level, by promoting at the level of local public authorities three local public policies regarding the improvement of air quality in Bucharest. The three advocacy campaigns will include 6 meetings with local public authorities, 12 requests for public information, 3 advocacy plans. The local initiative groups are the main target group in the implementation of the project. We aim for an information and awareness campaign that will reach 100,000 citizens, at least 100 people consulted about the 3 initiatives and over 60 people present at the project’s events.
Summary of project results
Air pollution in Bucharest is a systemic problem, the capital of Romania being on the 2nd place in the list of the most polluted cities in the European Union, citizens feeling a major impact of pollution on health and quality of life in the city. The involvement of citizens in this subject is essential for improving the situation, and the Action for Clean Air project had exactly this goal, to determine change through the participation of citizens in projects to improve air quality in Bucharest.
The project was built to involve three communities in concrete actions to improve air quality: the Cherry Tree Parents Group ran the Stop the Engine campaign, through which it succeeded in promoting the initiative to change the traffic code in the sense of the prohibition of parking with the engine running, the Environmental Group Tunari promoted solutions to reduce pollution from residential heating in the Tunari commune, and Intre Vecini promoted solutions for landscaping the gardens of the block of flats in Militari, to contribute to cleaner air. All 3 public policies were supported by local awareness campaigns and communication campaigns, through which more than 150,000 citizens were informed. The initiatives are currently being debated in local councils and Parliament.
The Stop the Engine campaign was extended to over 50 schools in Bucharest, in all educational institutions in district 6 and is also a proposal for a general council decision at the Bucharest level. The Garden Guide will be the basis of public programs for financing the development of gardens in neighberhoods. Following the implementation of the project, the three communities are monitored by means of 12 pollution measurement sensors, within the Aerlive platform. 100 people benefited directly from information on pollution by participating in the activities organized in the project. All three communities continue to carry out actions for cleaner air in their communities.