Hanoi attempts to ease air pollution

Hanoi has decided to take a host of solutions to reduce fine dust concentration, improve air quality in urban areas and optimize the air quality measurement as air pollution in this populous city has reached alarming level recently, local media reported.

Hanoi took the top spot among more than 10,000 cities worldwide in terms of air pollution, when its air quality index (AQI) stood at 175 on September 27 morning, according to the Air Quality Index recorded by IQAir AirVisual. 

In the previous evening, the index was over 200. An AQI level above 100 means the air is polluted or unhealthy for humans. 

The low quality of Hanoi’s air in the past several days was attributed to the transition from summer to fall and then winter. Therefore, this is just a "cyclical phenomenon" that comes and goes every year, said officials of the Hanoi Department of Natural Resources and Environment.

Ta Ngoc Son, deputy head of the Analysis Division under the Hanoi Agency of Environmental Protection, said IQAir AirVisual has come up with the ranking based on data taken by the monitoring station at the US embassy and which is not representative for the entire city.

However, Hanoi’s authority is making efforts to improve its air quality, Son added.

They are projects on noise and dust reduction, better control vehicles to reduce congestion and pollution, collecting and treating hazardous waste, among others.

"For each project, there are specific solutions. For example, we urge people to replace charcoal stove with modern cooker. The inspection teams also went to suburban districts to ask people not to burn straw," Son said.

He stressed that the city's campaign of planting one million trees has been completed and the municipal authority is planning to plant another 600,000 trees in the period of 2019-2020.

Son added that in the process of urbanization, numerous construction works and high density of vehicles are causing air pollution. Therefore, Hanoi is trying to limit private vehicles, replace A92 gasoline with a more environmental friendly E95 fuel, a mixture of gasoline and ethanol and enhance the control vehicle quality. 

The municipal Department of Transport also increased the number of overpasses to avoid congestion (so far, 12 overpasses have been built with an investment of roughly US$120 million), re-paved sidewalks to encourage people to go on foot.

Regarding construction activities, works are required to be isolated to minimize impacts on the surrounding environment; high-load trucks transporting construction materials and wastes must be washed before entering the city and leaving construction sites.

President of the Vietnam Clean Air Network Hoang Duong Tung advised Hanoi to take measures for each specific source of emissions. For the ones in downtown, Hanoi needs to set policies to control motorcycle emissions, enhance public transport and increase the fleet of buses using clean fuels.

"For source of emissions from thermal power plants, cement, iron and steel in neighboring provinces and cities, Hanoi needs to coordinate with those localities and the Ministry of Industry and Trade to have a management plan," Tung said.

Dr. Le Thi Trinh, head of the Environment Department under the Hanoi University of Natural Resources and Environment, said that air pollution in the capital is mainly due to dust generated from inside the city by vehicles and construction works.

"We cannot immediately reduce the number of vehicles or prohibit construction works. The necessary measures are enhancing inspection by authorities and imposing heavy fines, asking contractors to isolate construction works, and cleaning roads regularly so as not to spread dust into the air," Trinh said.

Louise Watt, a spokeswoman of IQAir AirVisual, said it provides real-time air quality indices to help the public protect themselves and raise awareness over the matter.

When people are aware that the air quality is bad for their health, they will demand actions to fix the problem, as what has happened in other cities like Beijing, she said.

Anh Kiet