Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Effort for Air Quality Control

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

TEGUCIGALPA, Jan 26 2004 (IPS) - The municipal government has installed four air quality control boxes throughout the Honduran capital, the city with highest rates of air pollution in Central America. The boxes, together costing 500,000 dollars, were set up in December in the areas with heaviest road traffic and highest levels of gas emissions. Each box contains instruments to measure temperature, humidity, windspeed and other climate conditions.

“We want a constant record of the daily, monthly and annual averages of the city's air quality. In February, we will issue a report on the results of the project,” Jonathan Laínez, of the city's environmental management unit, told Tierramérica.

The aim is to provide data support for the policies geared towards reducing air pollution.

According to a 2002 study by the Swiss cooperation foundation Swiss Contact, Tegucigalpa, home to a million people, is Central America's most contaminated city in terms of emissions of polluting gases and particulate matter.