Air quality monitoring machines out of order

Project not funded since EPA devolved to provinces, Rs82m to be ‘received soon’.

LAHORE:

A project launched in collaboration with the Japanese government for monitoring air quality has been suspended for the last ten months, The Express Tribune has learnt.

The Environment Protection Agency (EPA) launched the air quality monitoring system in 2007 in several cities. The project cost Rs1,233 million, with Rs973 million coming from the Japanese government. Two expensive machines were installed at Town Hall and Township in Lahore, while a mobile laboratory was assigned to monitor air pollution in the Punjab. In February 2011, the project came to a grinding halt as funding dried up.

An EPA official said that this was around the time that authority over several areas was devolved from the federal to the provincial level. “Once the project got to the Environment Protection Department of the Punjab government, it came to a halt,” said the official. “The machines have been shut since February.”

He said that the air quality monitoring machines in Lahore cost about Rs10-15 million a year to maintain.

The machines measure the levels of carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, nitric oxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, hydrocarbons, lead and small dust particles in the atmosphere.

The official said that because of their lack of maintenance, the readings from the machines were no longer reliable.

EPD Deputy Director Ali Abbas told The Express Tribune that the Punjab government had allocated Rs82 million over the next three years for the air quality monitoring project. “It is now with the Finance Department. Hopefully we will receive the funds soon,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 18^th, 2011.