No basis to conclude high air pollution in HN

Illustration photo

The official made the point at a press briefing in response to reporters’ questions about the information that Ha Noi is the second most polluted city behind Jakarta, Indonesia on April 2 in Ha Noi. 

The Deputy Minister revealed that environmental pollution frequently occurs in Winters and Springs from December to February March. Monitoring results from monitoring stations of the General Department of Environment and ten automatic air monitoring stations of the Ha Noi Department of Natural Resources and Environment, and monitoring data of the U.S. Embassy in Viet Nam showed that in the first quarter of 2019, the content of the particulate matter PM2.5 (tiny dust particles that are about 30 times smaller than a human hair) in the air of Hanoi exceeded allowed standards in several days in January, February and March. 

The official attributed the problem to heavy traffic density, construction works, production from plants and garbage burning. 

The claim that Ha Noi has the second highest level of air pollution in Southeast Asia came from a report on global air quality of the Green Innovation and Development Centre (GreenID), but it is inaccurate because in the statistics table, there is only data from 20 cities in four out of the 11 Southeast Asian countries. Therefore, there are no grounds for such a conclusion, Mr. Nhan said. 

The Deputy Minister said that the city is determined to installing an additional 80 air monitoring stations to measure pollution across the city in specific periods. 

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has worked with local authorities to move polluting facilities out of the city, he said./.

By Khanh Phuong