ISLAMABAD, Mar 8 (APP): The air quality in the federal capital on Monday was recorded healthy and clean as harmful ambient pollutants dropped after recent rain broke the prolonged dry spell since January in the metropolis.
Director General Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (DG Pak-EPA) Farzana Altaf Shah told APP that Islamabad has got the best air quality recorded on Monday as not only Oxides of Sulphur and Nitrogen rather suspended particulate matter of 2.5 microns (PM 2.5) was also below the permissible limits.
“It is one of factor that the Capital had received a mild shower but the efforts to control air pollution have already been going on to contain the risk,” she added.
Otherwise, she said if the pollutants ratio had been on very higher side already before shower, the pollutants level would not have lowered as reported today.
She mentioned that control and management measures were improving air quality in the Capital.
Ms Altaf noted that when the air quality was good and healthy, surprisingly wrong data reporters propagating uncaliberated and authorized data did not report any that showed reliable data was only generated by Pak-EPA.
The average air quality data of the month of February 2021 also indicated the overall polluted and healthy days of the Capital, she added.
She mentioned that although there was Islamabad Tourism Festival going in the Capital and heavy traffic remained during the entire week yet the Islamabad Capital Territory Administration and Traffic Police were vigilant to reduce air pollution risk during the mass mobility.
She urged all the stakeholders to play their role in having a healthy air in the Capital.
The air quality data by Pak-EPA revealed the average ratio of PM 2.5 was recorded 22.31 micrograms per meter cube (µg/m³ or unit to measure the pollutant level) which was which is much lower than the National Environmental Quality standards (NEQS) of 35 micrograms and the World Health Organization (WHO) standard of 20 micrograms per cubic meter.
The air quality data revealed the presence of 23.4 micrograms sulphur dioxide and 18.4 micrograms nitrogen dioxide per cubic meter against the NEQS of 120 micrograms and 80 micrograms per cubic meter respectively.
During the month of February, average PM 2.5 ratio was recorded 50.32 microgrammes per cubic meter whereas SO2 was 36.3 microgrammes and NO2 24.8 per cubic meters.
However, the air quality remained healthy for six alternate days during the month of February including the first and last week.
