Smog covers Hanoi on March 17

The event heard that in recent years, air quality monitoring has begun to attract attention, helping authorities detect environmental problems and work out appropriate solutions at an early date.

However, monitoring activities have yet to meet the demand for data since the number, scale and density of stations are still modest and they are arranged unevenly, making them unable to reflect the air environment in a sufficient and timely manner.

While the application of modern monitoring technologies remains sluggish, the operation of automatic stations has encountered many difficulties, participants in the meeting said.

Experts pointed out an urgent need to increase automatic monitoring stations and maintain their operations to provide sufficient, timely and precise data about air quality for authorities; improve the air quality warning and forecasting capacity; and promote Vietnam’s integration into regional and global environmental monitoring activities.

Minister Tran Hong Ha said the building of a modern and synchronous automatic monitoring network from the central to grassroots levels to specify sources and risks of pollution will be an important stride in environmental monitoring.

Effective monitoring of pollution sources will help with the issuance of plans for air pollution prevention and control, he noted.

Ha added aside from meeting technical standards, those stations should be situated at places under less impact from pollution sources so as to have stable and typical indexes representing the air quality of each locality./.VNA

Hanoi to build 70 more air monitoring stations this year

Hanoi will complete a system of 81 air quality monitoring stations by the end of this year, said Director of the municipal Department of Natural Resources and Environment Nguyen Trong Dong on February 5.

Increase in air monitoring frequency in HCM City proposed

The HCM City Department of Natural Resources and Environment has proposed local authorities to raise the frequency of air monitoring.