EPA to get three air quality monitors in ICT

Smog grips Pakistan with increasing respiratory issues

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is going to get three new air quality monitors in the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) to improve pollutant ratio measurement across the federal capital.

Speaking to the media an EPA official said the project concept – I (PC-I) was underway which would be submitted to the Ministry of Climate Change (MoCC) to grant sanction of the project. "The air quality monitors will also include water quality measurement equipment, which is being processed as per the directions of the MoCC," he added.

He said that at present EPA had two air quality monitors, a fixed one and a mobile one that had the capacity to gauge air quality within a two to three kilometer radius.

However, at present the fixed air quality measuring equipment was generating the data of ICT industrial area of Sector I-9, Kashmir Highway and Expressway. To a question, he said the three new air quality measuring machines would be installed at the busiest intersections of the city with increased ratio of vehicular and industrial emissions.

"The proposed sites are Tramri Chowk, Rawat and Peshawar Mor from where the bulk traffic enters the federal capital," he added. He mentioned that the available air quality monitors were giving the true picture of air quality of the federal capital but had limited areas' data whereas with the addition of three more the entire city's pollution level would be recorded.

"A single air quality monitor costs approximately US$32-35 million. Its calibration and maintenance adds even more to the expense of the technology" he said. The EPA official noted that the EPA at present was providing 24 hours air quality data without any manipulation in all durations and weather conditions. "We have adopted the standard procedure of eight-hour data tabulation which reveals the exact scenario prevailing during different weather conditions and temperature," he added.

Health hazards

Smog season is prevailing across the country with its varying intensity from city to city and area to area with increased number of patients visiting hospitals with serious respiratory issues and cold, cough and flu problems.

Speaking  to the media, Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) Environmental Scientist Dr Imran Khalid said smog was prevailing in every city of the country, which should be realised by the all the stakeholders and general public.

"Air pollution is a silent killer and it creeps into the human body with unimaginable impacts on the respiratory and nervous system. It should be taken seriously that air quality in the federal capital is not moderate or healthy due to decreased temperature and increased density of suspended particles including particulate matter of 2.5 microns," he said.

He said Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, Islamabad, Faisalabad and other cities were in the spotlight due to data availability, however, the other cities either rural or urban all had polluted air, which also required air quality monitoring.  

Published in The Express Tribune, December 4^th, 2019.