Hanoi will update its air quality index (AQI) hourly in weather forecast bulletins, Luu Thi Thanh Chi, deputy director of the Hanoi Environment Protection Sub-department, said at the workshop on air pollution in Hanoi on October 11.Chi blamed the rapid urbanization together with the rising population and the big amount of private vehicles for air pollution.
To deal with the issue, Chi said Hanoi is operating 11 automatic air monitoring stations, and another 33 stations will be installed by 2020.
Hanoi’s authority will also require industrial parks and factories in the city to install monitoring systems and send updated data to the Hanoi Environment Protection Sub-department, Chi added.
Lotte building on Dao Tan street in Hanoi is clouded in smog. Construction work has been blamed as one of the contributors to the city's declining air quality. Photo: Thanh Dat
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Director of the Environment Protection Sub-department Mai Trong Thai said this is an update of AQI data every hour round the clock in accordance with the provisions of the General Department of Environment, thus, there would be some delay compared to the real time data.
"To respond to the people’s great interest, in the next one or two days, along with providing AQI data one per day, we will provide it every hour," Thai said.
He noted that the agency also gathered the support from the World Bank (WB) to find out the sources of air pollution in Hanoi and will publish the results in May 2020.
Nguyen Thi Le Thu, a WB representative, said that the WB is studying the sources of air pollution in Hanoi and on the basis of the research results, it will support the city to build a comprehensive solution for air quality control.
The WB will coordinate with Hanoi to run a model to provide optimal solutions in terms of cost and techniques suitable to the reality, Thu stressed.
Speaking at the event, Chairman of the Vietnam Clean Air Partnership Hoang Duong Tung admitted that many air monitoring apps and websites are now available but it is hard to verify their accuracy.
According to Tung, authorities of many countries have worked with vehicle makers to set up a system to check emissions. If it exceeds the limit, the owner must repair his car until it meets the requirements.
Tung also mentioned, as a foreign experience, the establishment of a low emission area in which vehicles must meet the required emission standards to be allowed to enter. "These are ways Hanoi can learn," he said.
Besides, the expert suggested that Hanoi should make "no burning of straw" one of the criteria for a rural locality to be recognized as a new-style rural area.
Kidong Park, a representative from the World Health Organization, said that Hanoi should learn from Beijing (China)’s efforts in improving air quality such as strengthening the system of monitoring air quality and citizens' ability to access official sources of information, applying emergency measures when air pollution exceeds the limit, among others.
Air pollution is a regional issue in many countries, thus, Vietnam needs to promote inter-sectorial and inter-provincial coordination mechanisms to resolve, Park said, believing that if Hanoi acts immediately to improve the city’s air quality, the air will be healthier in the next few years.
