Blue Sky 2020
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Charitha Herath
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In a bid to reach the WHO’s interim target by managing the ambient
air quality of the country, the Central Environmental Authority (CEA)
has implemented the integrated air quality management project, ‘Blue Sky
2020’.
In an interview with the Sunday Observer CEA Chairman Charitha Herath
said special attention was given to environmental conservation under the
Mahinda Chinthana and improving ambient air quality is one area that has
been given priorty.
“ President Mahinda Rajapaksa has allocated Rs. 150 million from this
year’s Budget to lanuch projects aimed at improving air quality”, he
said. He said Sri Lanka was among the developed countries which had
given priority to protect the environment in its manifesto. According to
the CEA Chairman there was a great need to launch a project to improve
the ambient air as emissions from transport, industries and power plants
have recorded a high percentage.
 Herath said that the biggest defaulter to air pollution is made from
vehicle emissions and the objective of the project was to improve the
quality of the ambient air gradually to reach the target by 2020. “If
European standards are introduced to reduce the rate of the air
pollution, half of the present vehicle fleet will have to be removed
from roads.
The Ministry has decided to gradually upgrade the ambient air quality
to meet EU standards within a time frame of eight years from 2012”, he
said.
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The CEA is to design and implement air ambient quality
monitoring network covering major cities. “ Under this project,
a passive sampling network to cover the remaining major cities
which have high potential for different industrial, commercial,
social and tourism activities will be designed and air quality
display boards will also be installed in major cities to make
the
public aware of the quality of air in their cities
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Ambient air quality monitoring is a major task in the project aimed
to identify air pollution hotspots in the country. The CEA is to design
and implement air ambient quality monitoring network covering major
cities.
“ Under this project, a passive sampling network to cover the
remaining major cities which have high potential for different
industrial, commercial, social and tourism activities will be designed
and air quality display boards will also be installed in major cities to
make the public aware of the quality of air in their cities. The first
such program will be launched at the end of this year”, he said.
Herath said this initiative would be useful to promote tourism in
those cities as foreign tourists were interested in holidaying cities
with clean air. “ Air quality monitoring using passive samples will be
developed to determine exposure levels”, he said adding that a study
will be carried out on air pollutant dispersion patterns in Sri Lanka
according to seasonal weather conditions.
The chairman said fuel economy
standards would be developed to minimise air pollution from the
transport sector. “ Based on these standards, recommendations,
regulations and fiscal policies for vehicle imports and vehicle fleet
management will be formulated and guildlines for mass transport network
will also be formulated during 2016 to 2020.
The Sulphur content in fuel is now between 2000 to 3000 ppm and steps
should be taken to reduce the sulphur content in auto diesel vehicles to
500ppm in future”, he said.
- SS
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