VietNamNet Bridge - Billions of dong have been spent on automatic air monitoring stations in Hanoi, but most of the stations have stopped operation. Hanoi will have to set up new stations in the time to come.

The Nam Thang Long Air Monitoring Station is located in the Hanoi Monitoring and Environmental Resources Analysis Center, belonging to the Hanoi Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, at No 36A Pham Van Dong street.

Officers said the station was put into operation in 2002 and some devices began breaking down in 2010. The electronic board which displays air indexes has stopped operation for a long time.

Foreign specialists also cannot fix the problems. Meanwhile, as the manufacturers have stopped making the devices, Vietnam cannot buy spare parts to replace the broken parts.

A lot of other monitoring stations in Hanoi are facing the same problems. The station in the southwestern part of the city, in the campus of the Hanoi University of Natural Sciences, and the station on the top of the Environment Science & Technique Institute’s building have also been forgotten. 

The electronic board, valued at billions of dong, which was hoped to give information about the number of traffic accident cases and the status of the air in Hanoi, located at the crossroads of Kim Ma and Nguyen Chi Thanh streets has also stopped working for a long time.

Billions of dong have been spent on automatic air monitoring stations in Hanoi, but most of the stations have stopped operation. Hanoi will have to set up new stations in the time to come.

The air monitoring station at No 556 Nguyen Van Cu Street is one of very few stations which remain operational. However, the station is in bad condition and the monitoring results have been affected by many external problems.

The General Directorate of Environment has recently sent a document to the Hanoi People’s Committee, asking the local authorities to instruct relevant agencies to cut down tree branches and relocate the bus station nearby to ensure the smooth operation of the monitoring station.

According to Hoang Duong Tung, deputy general director of the General Directorate of Environment, the common characteristic of all air monitoring stations in Vietnam is that they cannot work properly despite the initial huge investment capital. This is attributed to modest expenses to run the stations.

The same thing is happening with monitoring stations in HCM City. Nine automatic monitoring stations in the city have been left idle for many years because of the lack of money to run them. The stations in Da Nang City have been operating at a moderate level.

The major problem, according to Tung, is the lack of a reasonable financial policy for air monitoring stations. It is estimated that each station needs VND1 billion a year on average for maintenance.

Tung believes that Hanoi needs at least 10 stations.


Chi Mai