In an effort to make the city’s air quality assessment process more efficient, Ho Chi Minh City's environmental department has requested US$3.5 million from the city budget to replace its broken air monitoring system, reports Thanh Nien.
Currently, there are nine automatic air monitoring facilities stationed around town. The Danish government supported the cost of building four units in 2000, while the Norwegian government helped with five more in 2002. However, the entire system is badly damaged, and has actually been out of service since 2009, according to Tuoi Tre.
As a result, environmental officials can no longer monitor the southern hub’s air quality continuously for 24 hours. They have to make do with semi-automatic equipment, collecting necessary information just twice a day – between 8am and 9am; and between 3pm and 4pm – for ten days a month.
However, these time frames are “impractical”, according to local authorities, as they miss both the busiest periods in terms of traffic, as well as the hours when trucks are allowed in the city. These are the top contributing factors to the city’s pollution.
The best current option for consistent air quality readings in the city comes from the United States Consulate in HCMC, though it is far from comprehensive as data is based on only one location.
The new proposal aims to eventually replace all nine malfunctioning stations with new ones, with the aim of having four new stations – costing VND78 billion (US$3.5 million) in total – as soon as possible.
In March, the department also put forth a plan to establish 27 air quality check stations and 225 semi-automatic facilities, reports VnExpress. If greenlit, the project would take until 2020 to set up and require VND495 billion (US$22.1 million) from the city’s budget, according to the news source.
