The government of Limpopo’s plan to enforce compliance on air pollution reduction will become a reality with the launch of three state-of-the-art ambient air quality stations.
As the custodians of improvement of air quality in the province, the Limpopo department of economic development, environment, and tourism’s Zaid Kalla said the launch is part of efforts to improve air quality and enforce compliance on air pollution reduction.
The launch is scheduled for Tuesday at the Disaster Management Centre in Modimolle in the Waterberg district.
“To ensure acceptable levels of air quality, the department deploys various measures, including priority area declaration, atmospheric emission licensing, and ambient air quality monitoring,” Kalla said.
“Our top three contributors to air pollution in the province are households, the energy sector, and mining activities.
“Particulate matter, benzene, toluene, ethybenzene, xylene, sulphur dioxide, oxides of nitrogen, ozone, and carbon monoxide are among the criteria pollutants measured.”
Community awareness
Limpopo has five monitoring stations owned and managed by the department together with local municipalities.
The department will be commissioning the three state-of-the-art ambient air quality monitoring stations, which will measure the quality of the air and provide information about the state of the air within these localities.
“The launch of these stations is a positive step towards demonstrating and creating community awareness in ensuring clean and healthy air for the people of Limpopo.
“The stations are reporting data live on the South African Air Quality Information System, and members of the public can freely access live air quality information.”
