Air Quality Capacity Building in Developing Countries

• By: AWMA
• On: 10/08/2025 09:25:37
• In: EM Articles
• Comments: 0

by Golam Sarwar and Prakash Doraiswamy

Many developing countries suffer from high levels of air pollution due to rapid economic growth with no or limited emission controls. IQAir reports that the top five most polluted countries with the highest ambient fine particle (PM2.5) concentration are developing countries. In fact, all countries listed in the top 50 most polluted countries are developing countries. In this issue of EM, we present six articles that focus on air quality issues in these countries that share insights on these challenges and how they are advancing their efforts forward. 

In the first article, Juthi Rani Mitra and Kevin Czajkowski discuss air pollution issues in Bangladesh, which has been suffering from severe air pollution for a long time. The capital, Dhaka, serves as the business and economic center of Bangladesh and experiences high levels of air pollution. The authors analyze surface and satellite-derived PM2.5 concentrations and present spatial patterns, trends, annual and seasonal concentrations, and hot spots in Bangladesh.

Next, Taciana T. de A. Albuquerque, et al. examine air pollution in Brazil. Despite progress, Brazil's air quality management system still faces major challenges, including inconsistent monitoring, limited data transparency, and insufficient coordination across government levels. Low-cost sensors and satellite data can be useful in Brazil. The authors suggest that public-private partnerships can improve monitoring networks in Brazil.

In their article, Aijun Xiu, et al. discuss air pollution in China. In the first 15 years of the 2000s, many heavy pollution episodes were reported by the news media in China and worldwide. However, tremendous short-term air quality improvements occurred during two important events, Beijing 2008 Olympics and the 2014 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit. The so-called “Beijing Blue” or “APEC Blue” was achieved by strict control measures. These “ad hoc” approaches toward air pollution prevention and control ultimately convinced the Chinese government, public, and scientists that improving air quality can be accomplished with comprehensive efforts.

Next, Collins Gameli Hodoli, et al. report that air pollution is the second leading risk factor for premature deaths in the African Union after malnutrition. Malawi children are exposed to air pollution levels far greater than children in high income countries. Malawi lacks robust air quality monitoring of pollutants. The authors describe an initiative to install a reference grade PM2.5 monitor along with micro air sensors to establish a benchmark data of air pollution with the eventual goals of developing public awareness, initiating a national ambient air quality standard, and developing air pollution management and controls in Malawi.

This is followed by Jenny Bratburd, et al., who discuss satellite data and how they can be combined with data from other sources to assess air pollution in regions where robust ground monitoring data are limited.They provide examples of available satellite data and model results that can be used for air quality assessments, epidemiological investigations, and global air quality forecasting.

Last but not least, authors Victor Nthusi, Abinaya Sekar, and Pallavi Pant present perspectives on strengthening air quality and health capacity in low- and middle income countries. They report exposure to ambient PM2.5 caused 4.6 times additional deaths in low- and middle-income countries in 2021 than in high-income countries.They describe their experiences in building knowledge and supporting capacity building in these countries.

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