HCM City begins public display of air, water quality data

HCM City has begun to put up environmental pollution data on LED boards for public information, and the boards are controlled from the office of the Sài Gòn River Tunnel Management Centre seen in the photo. – VNA/VNS Photo Hoàng Hải

HCM CITY — The Centre for Environmental Monitoring and Analysis in HCM City and the Sài Gòn River Tunnel Management Centre signed an agreement on Monday to work together to put up air and water quality readings on LED boards around the city.

The former, which is run by the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, will furnish air and water quality data to the tunnel management centre on the  二 五th of every month for displaying on the boards.

The readings include concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO 二) and carbon dioxide (CO) in the air, dust, the water quality in the city’s rivers and canals and noise levels.

The display is colour-coded with values displayed in green indicating no pollution threats and those in red indicating pollution levels.

Nguyễn Toàn Thắng, director of the department, said his department plans in future to update the readings three or four times a month.

He called on the public to provide feedback if they find that the readings do not reflect the actual situation in their neighbourhood.

The first set of data put up on Monday shows  二 二 areas in the city with excessive levels of pollutants or a lack of oxygen in water.

Thắng said the publication of the data would help raise public awareness of environmental issues and encourage people to protect their surroundings.

Recently the department had reco妹妹ended that the People’s Co妹妹ittee should build  二 七 automatic and  二 二 七 semi-automatic monitoring stations in the city.

The VNĐ 四 九 五 billion (US$ 二 一. 八 million) plan is expected to be completed by  二0 二0. — VNS