As per the monitoring data published by the Department of Environment at pollution.gov.np, which comes under the Ministry of Forests and Environment, Nepal has seen the increasing growth of air pollution but despite all this, we see very few government-led initiatives which aim to sensitize citizens regarding air pollution and its health effects. Although the people living in Kathmandu valley and its surrounding districts (Bhaktapur & Lalitpur) have started to raise their voice regarding it. Some local levels, for example; Lalitpur Metropolitan City has started constructing a 4.7 km cycle lane, with the aim of making city cycle-friendly; which can play a vital role in minimizing the carbon-emitting vehicle in the city areas.

Whereas the air pollution isn’t just the problem of Kathmandu valley; others cities of Nepal like Nepalgunj, Dang, Chitwan, Birjung etc sees the major increase in pollution according to Department of Environment data, but many are unaware about it because most of the awareness camping are focused mostly around Kathmandu. This is an urgent need, people living in those parts of the country need to be sensitized so that they can make their activities decisions accordingly.

Understanding air pollution can be difficult for many because of its technologies, Our aim through this project is to use social media (especially Twitter) to aware people regarding the current air pollution levels so that they can plan their outdoor and indoor activities as per the evidence. A Twitter Bot uses air quality data from the Open Data Nepal; real-time data dashboard to notify the people regarding the current monitoring information of different places of Nepal using alert tweets.

 

How does it work?

A bot automatically tweets the current monitoring information on a timely basis of a selected station. List of the selected station:

 

Phase I; will include five-station, in total three tweets (Morning, Afternoon & Evening) will be sent every day with current measurement information.

Tweet time: 5:00 AM, 11:00 AM, 6:00 PM

Location: Bhaisipati, Kathmandu

(Latitude : 27.712463 | Longitude : 85.315704)

 

Tweet time: 5:30 AM, 11:30 AM, 6:30 PM

Location: Nepalgunj

(Latitude : 28.05275 | Longitude : 81.6222)

 

Tweet time: 6:00 AM, 12:00 PM, 7:00 PM

Location: Simara

(Latitude : 27.156708 | Longitude : 84.997761)

 

Tweet time: 6:30 AM, 12:30 PM, 7:30 PM

Location: Dhulikhel,Kavre

(Latitude : 27.608483 | Longitude : 85.547803)

 

Tweet time: 7:00 AM, 1:00 PM, 8:00 PM

Location: DHM, Pokhara

(Latitude : 28.205817 | Longitude : 83.97361)

 

Phase II; our aim is to add five more stations in the second phase of the project.

Location: Dang

(Latitude : 27.9914 | Longitude : 82.5346)

 

Location: Sauraha, Lumbini

(Latitude : 27.573483 | Longitude : 84.498578)

 

Location: Jhumka, Sunsari

(Latitude : 26.664451 | Longitude : 87.195171)

 

Location: Pulchowk, Lalitpur

(Latitude : 27.608483 | Longitude : 85.547803)

 

Location: Ratnapark, Kathmandu

(Latitude : 27.65311 | Longitude : 85.302252)

 

Rest of the other stations will be added slowly, as the project started making progress with impact.

 

A tweet is also accompanied by an interactive banner, which includes the following indicators:

1. Location
2. Current Time
3. Current AQI Parameters (Good, Moderate, Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups, Unhealthy, Very Unhealthy, Hazardous)
4. Air Quality Index (AQI) Value
5. PM 2.5 Value
6. Activities Recommendation

 

Sample Tweet

[Station Name] Very Unhealthy [Emoji]: The risk is increasing, everyone may experience more serious health effects.

AQI: ….., PM2.5: ….. µg/m³, PM10: ….. µg/m³ #NepalAQ #CareForAir

Sample Tweet, Activities and Emoji table

Thank you note

Open Knowledge Nepal is grateful to Nirmal Rijal and Sagar Ghimire for leading the development of the project. The project will be soon open-sourced through the OKN GitHub repository. For more info, write to us at info [AT] oknp [DOT] org. Follow @airqualitynepal