Several monitoring sensors installed in different towns

Sustainability for Seychelles (S4S), a non-governmental organization, is gearing up to broaden its air quality monitoring project initiated last November. The project aims to enhance understanding of the air quality across the island nation of Seychelles, facilitating informed decisions regarding necessary interventions and actions.

Marie-Thérèse Purvis, a board member of S4S, revealed to SNA that initially, the organization sought funding for the project from the National Grants Fund. To extend the project’s scope, she intends to reapply for this grant this year.

« We’re considering it. We aim to install more sensors in public areas, particularly those with significant industrial and human activities, to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of the country’s actual air quality », she explained.

For this initiative, S4S deployed numerous sensors on the three primary islands of Seychelles: Mahé, Praslin, and La Digue. Project manager Laurent Sam noted that in collaboration with the Seychelles Meteorological Department, S4S has installed 13 air quality sensors across the islands. The collected data is uploaded to a real-time website accessible to the public. The website also provides air quality information for over 6,000 cities in 118 countries.

Air quality is assessed using the Air Quality Index (AQI), which functions akin to a thermometer ranging from 0 to 500 degrees. While the S4S study is in its nascent stages, with only four months of data available, early readings exhibit a wide spectrum. The Air Quality Index (AQI) recorded a low of 5 in December and a high of 91 in March. According to WHO guidelines, the average daily AQI should not surpass 20.