VietNamNet Bridge – Many air monitoring stations in HCM City have not been working well for the last four years, so the city wants to build new stations to monitor increasing air pollution.

A broken-down air monitor station in HCM City.

The HCM City Department of Environment and Natural Resources has proposed building 9 automatic air monitoring stations in the city. 

The department said it is an urgent need to build at least four stations first, at a cost of VND78 billion (over $3 million).

In 2003, Norway and Denmark financed the construction of 9 air automatic monitoring stations. However, this system stopped operation in 2012.

Currently, the city is using a semi-automatic air monitoring system, which works from 8-9am and 3-4pm, which is not suitable because trucks are not allowed to run in the city during this time. 

In addition, the air monitoring results using a semi-automatic method does not provide comprehensive data, causing difficulty to assess the current state of water and air pollution in the city.

Previously, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment also proposed to the city to build 27 automatic monitoring stations and 225 semi-automatic stations. The construction is expected to begin from now to 2020, at a cost of around VND495 billion ($23 million).

According to a report by the HCM City Center for Environmental Monitoring and Analysis, the CO (carbon monoxide), noise and dust indicators in the city are at alarming levels.

The quality of water has declined as most canals are polluted by microorganisms and coliform.

Mai Nguyen