Brussels, (Brussels Morning)- About 400 parents and children gathered in front of eight Brussels schools to draw attention to the air quality around schools. In order to improve this and make the school environment safer, the parents and non-profit organisation Chercheurs d’air are requesting more school streets in the Brussels Region, said a BRUZZ reporter.
Breakfast in the street, games, petitions, parents taking their children to school by bike. The organisation GoodPlanet Belgium, vzw Chercheurs d’air and parents’ associations organised many actions last Friday to draw attention to the appalling air quality. in the school environment.
“Several recent studies show that the concentration of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) near Brussels schools is far above the standard set by the WHO,” says Justine Di Prima of the non-profit organisation Chercheurs d’air. “We also know that children are very sensitive to air pollution.”
More school streets for clean air
To improve air quality, Chercheurs d’air and GoodPlanet Belgium are looking at the construction of school streets. “They not only ensure better air quality near schools, but also make the school environment a meeting place for parents and their children,” says Sophie Jadin of GoodPlanet Belgium.
Of the 558 nursery and primary schools in Brussels, only 39 today have a school street. In the municipality of Auderghem, according to the non-profit association Chercheurs d’air, there are no school streets at all, nor plans to set up one. Incomprehensible, they find at the non-profit organisation. “This is about public health, not about taking over public space,” says Justine Di Prima.
‘No municipal council takes the initiative itself’
“Most school streets are currently being stimulated by neighbourhood associations or parents,” Di Prima continues. “As yet, there is not a single municipal council that is proactively rolling up its sleeves.” Chercheurs d’air therefore hopes that every municipality will integrate school streets in its circulation plan.
By next year, the association is working on an inventory containing all streets that can easily be closed to traffic and hopes to provide a first step for more school streets in the capital.
In the Goffartstraat in Ixelles, parents and local residents showed how things can be done differently on Friday. The street was closed to traffic for a while near the Institut Saint-Boniface Parnasse. The Goffart neighbourhood committee wants less traffic at the beginning and end of each school day.
“We are asking for the necessary measures to reduce air pollution in this neighbourhood and to make the school environment a place where parents and children can meet,” explains Lucie Blondel of the Goffart neighbourhood committee.
