Introduction Particulate matter is not monitored in South Africa through any national air quality monitoring network and trends for this indicator are therefore not readily available. Real-time ambient air quality monitoring is however performed by various industries,  associations and ad hoc projects, although these monitoring efforts are not synchronised regarding methods, equipment and monitoring periods and although it is not possible to provide a complete picture of the ambient air quality in the province with regard to particulate matter, certain data gathered from these individual monitoring programmes provide a "snap-shot" for those particular industries in time and space.

Assessment of Data

Eskom is one such industry and the graph below indicates the trend in air quality monitoring of the mean annual particulate matter concentration for each monitoring station during the period 1996 to 2001 (Eskom, 2002).