View of Dbayeh, north of Beirut, covered by a cloud of pollution. (Credit: Joseph Eid/AFP)
BEIRUT — Environment Minister Tamara Elzein held a press conference Sunday to announce the signing of a memorandum of understanding between her ministry and several institutions that will host air quality measurement stations and low-cost pollution sensors (micro-devices measuring fine particles — PM2.5 — and gases). These devices will be installed in different neighborhoods of the capital and will form an air quality measurement network, she explained.
This project is funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and implemented by the ministry and the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS). "Due to limited funding, it will initially be implemented only in Beirut," Elzein specified.
The project will eventually make it possible to publish an air quality index and to understand the link between pollution and its causes, to provide essential information to the Lebanese people, and also to develop an alert system in the event of pollution spikes, designed to warn vulnerable populations, such as the elderly or those suffering from pulmonary conditions, she said.
Lebanon suffers from chronic air pollution, which, according to Elzein, come from three sources: the diesel-powered generators dispersed throughout all neighborhoods (the main source of pollution), the transportation sector (about a third of the pollutants), and industries and emissions from illegal dumps.
An air quality measurement network previously installed and managed by the Environment Ministry has been out of service for many years. Only a few measurements, limited in space and time and carried out by a handful of institutions, have made certain pollution data available.
The stations will first be installed at Saint Joseph University (USJ), the Lebanese American University (LAU), the National Council for Scientific Research (CNRS), as well as at the port of Beirut, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Energy Ministry, and the Industrial Research Institute (IRI), not to mention the Environment Ministry itself.
