Puducherry Power Corporation Limited, Polagam; Perunthalaivar Kamarajar College of Education, Nehru Nagar; and the Government Tourism Home, Kovilpathu, now have ambient air quality monitoring stations here.
Sanctioned by the Central Pollution Control Board, these three stations will have data and a representative trend analysis on the industrial pollutants and their impact on the fragile coastal environment of the district.
The stations would monitor three parameters, of which two would involve gauging gaseous pollutants sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides and one of respirable particulate matter of below 10 microns.
Dwarkanath, Director, Ministry of Science and Technology, Puducherry, told The Hindu that the monitoring of ambient air quality was based on a nationally accepted protocol of measuring the sample of particulate pollutants.
The parameters would be analysed as actual pollution and ideal pollution levels every eight hours. The data would be transmitted on a monthly basis to the Central Pollution Control Board and would be uploaded in the websites of both CPCB and Puducherry Pollution Control Board. The annual data would be the average data for 105 days, which would be more of a representative data, says Dr. Dwarkanath.
The objective was to create a background database and awareness on pollution levels.
“If someone had wanted pollution data for Karaikal for the last decade, we never had one. But five years from now, we would have long-term data starting from 2014,” says Dr. Dwarkanath.
According to Dr. Dwarkanath, the data would help government in its decision making on management plan concerning traffic management and land use. “There are a number of industries here. The date may help in understanding their impact and policy on industries,” he said.
There were 350 such monitoring stations in the country to monitor pollution levels. The data collated was annually published as a data hand book by the Central Pollution Control Board. Earlier, the stations were inaugurated by the Minister for Science and Technology T. Thiagarajan on Wednesday.
