While the country is swamped with ever increasing number of vehicles with no curtailing of their imports, the authorities have yet to install proper air quality testing equipment to monitor the harm they are doing to the quality of air we breathe, concerned environmentalists complain.
They said the sole machine that is operational for the purpose sited in front of the Fort Railway Station only measures the particulate matter in the air and it too is limping without spares. It is one of two machines obtained as aid from Australia in 1996. However after few years use both machines had packed up, but with parts canibalised from one the other has been in operation since about 2000 to measure just the particulate matter.
"We have no way of knowing how much of harmful fumes like Sulfur dioxide, carbon Dioxide, carbon monoxide and much more toxic ground ozone we are inhaling at any given time", conceded one government senior official involved in air quality standards monitoring in the country.
Central Environmental Authority Chairman Charitha Herath too agrees with the situation and last year he promised to get new equipment from India to test ambient air quality at vital places, but when The Island contacted him yesterday, he said the Indian aid failed to materialize.
Herath, however assured that now they would draw Rs 50 million from the Vehicle Emission Testing Trust Fund and get another Rs150 million from the next budget to acquire the required equipment either later this year or early next year.
"In this regard we have been having regular discussions with the budget division of the Treasury. Even on Thursday I had a meeting with the relevant official on the urgency of our need", he said.
Meanwhile a combined operation was launched in Kandy during the last three days by the traffic police, the Department of Motor Traffic and the Air Management Centre (AIRMAC) to catch polluting vehicles. Two teams with two testing machines made random tests on more than 400 vehicles at different locations in Kandy.
According to officials involved in the random testing programme about 10 per cent of the vehicles tested failed the test. Through this process they not only hope to catch polluting vehicles, but also testing centres that pass vehicles, which do not deserve to pass and those with bogus emission testing certificates. Those who had failed the on the spot test have been made to surrender their licences till such time they repair their vehicles.
Such random checks had also netted motorists running without the revenue licence and even insurance. (RA)
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