DEA to tackle air monitoring station deficiencies
The Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) is setting up an asset management system to ensure the optimal performance of the stations monitoring South Africa’s air quality, Environmental Affairs Deputy Minister Barbara Thomson said on Monday.
According to the recently released 2014 State of the Air Report, many of the 112 State-owned air-quality monitoring stations throughout the country were not fully operational or operated below certain minimum requirements.
“These monitoring stations are important tools that allow us to make a proper analysis of air quality levels in our country and identify priority areas for intervention,” she explained.
The stations collated and reported data to the South African Air Quality Information System to enable the effective identification of problem areas and the implementation of air pollution mitigation measures.
“It is of vital importance that they become fully operational. We are planning to take this matter up at the appropriate intergovernmental forum,” Thomson averred.
This emerged after the 2014 State of the Air Report, while showing a national improvement in air quality, revealed that no significant gains had been made in improving the air quality in priority areas.
“The implication of this is that communities residing in air pollution hotspots do not yet enjoy their constitutional right to air that is not harmful to their health and wellbeing,” Thomson explained.
The DEA vowed to focus on the high-pollution regions, seeking innovative solutions to ensure compliance, including the installation of air quality index billboards to report the state of air quality “live” to keep residents informed.
Comments
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation