HCMC blames traffic activities, emission sources for air pollution, noises

The Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Ho Chi Minh City yesterday hosted a press conference concerning to photochemical smog phenomenon and air quality in the city. 
The air pollution in Ho Chi Minh City deteriorates and harms people's health and the environment
The air pollution in Ho Chi Minh City deteriorates and harms people's health and the environment
The data showed that the air pollution index in some places of the city had surpassed the safety threshold

According to Director of the Center for Environmental Monitoring and Analysis under the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Ho Chi Minh City Mr. Cao Tung Son, the concentration of air pollutants in Ho Chi Minh City over past nine months has been quite complicated and tended to increase compared to the same period of last year. 

Fine particulate matter and noise from traffic activities were also identified as the two components with the highest pollution concentration. Specifically, the data showed that there had been 50.8 percent of suspended dust and 93.9 percent of noise level observed at 19 traffic locations having been surpassed the permitted standard.

Particularly, the air pollution in Ho Chi Minh City deteriorated and harmed people's health and the environment from September 18- 25 due to temperature inversion in cold air. 

Air quality indexes in Cat Lai, the intersection of Huynh Tan Phat - Nguyen Van Linh, Go Vap, An Suong and Binh Phuoc were measured and identified with high concentrations of air pollutants. Air quality index at My Thuy roundabout had the highest concentration of pollutants with 99 percent of suspended dust data and 100 percent of noise data exceeding the standard observed in the first nine months of the year. 

In order to improve the current air pollution, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment proposed that the city should simultaneously carry out many solutions with active and responsible participation from the relevant authorities. 

Accordingly, regarding the transport activities, it is necessary to enhance road density, the proportion of land for traffic in combination with increasing the operational efficiency of public passenger transport, metro routes and overhead routes to reduce a volume of personal vehicle and the vehicles on the roads. 

As for the air pollution from industrial activities, the department will conduct an inventory of sources of environmental pollution from production, trade and service activities in combination with strictly sanctioning violations.
HCMC blames traffic activities, emission sources for air pollution, noises ảnh 1 Three main emission sources from vehicles, factories and urban improvement construction projects cause air pollution in the city 
Besides that, with large emission sources, the department forced businesses to install automatic emission monitoring systems and transmit monitoring data to the department for monitoring.  In addition, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment coordinates with the Department of Transport and traffic police to regularly inspect the environmental protection of the transport of raw materials serving for construction works. The Center for Environmental Monitoring and Analysis under the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Ho Chi Minh City is also urgently speeding up the investment progress of the city's environmental quality monitoring stations through the decentralized and socialized solutions. Moreover, the step-by-step investment is also the basis for better improvement of the city's environmental quality monitoring infrastructure.  The earliest implementation time is expected to fall in 2020 and could not be completed before 2030.

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