By V L Srinivasan
Muscat, Jan 17: In order to check the fallout of rapid urbanisation and growing industrialisation, the Ministry of Environment and Climate Affairs has decided to procure half a dozen mobile air pollution monitoring units and place them across the country.
The first such mobile station is expected in Salalah next month. The remaining units, for which the process of tendering will begin soon, will be stationed in Sohar, which is considered one of the fastest growing industrial areas in the region.
They will be commissioned nine months from the date of entering into agreements with the companies supplying them.
At present, there are three mobile stations and one fixed unit which have been installed by the ministry in Sohar and Muscat. However, about a dozen other units have been put up by the private sector at Sohar, Sur, Barka, Manah and other sites.
The companies which have installed them are in the power, oil and gas, fertiliser and aluminium manufacturing sectors. “The new mobile units are being planned to ensure that the air and noise quality in places like Salalah and Sohar, where a large number of industries will be coming up in the next five years, are as per the prescribed standards,” a source at the Ministry of Environment and Climate Affairs told Muscat Daily.
Each unit will cost between RO100,00-150,000. The unit will analyse the presence of sulphur dioxide, ozone, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, hydrogen sulphide and hydrocarbons.
With the concepts of resource conservation, cleaner production and sustainable development gaining momentum and expected to have a positive impact on environmental quality in the future, the need for such equipment has become a necessity. “Pollutants like sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and ozone result in decreased crop yields and have a negative impact on health,” the ministry source added.
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