Government plans to put up billboards that will report live on the state of air in highly populated areas in the country.

“If the air quality is bad, it will tell you to stay indoors, if you are part of the sensitive population… A person with asthma is sensitive… that person needs to know that they cannot be out doing their business on this day because there is an air quality problem, like veld fires,” explained National Air Quality Officer Dr Thuli Mdluli.

Speaking at a media briefing on the state of air and regulation of air quality legislation in Pretoria on Tuesday, Mdluli said the billboards will also provide information on whether companies are complying with the act to keep air in a good state.

Mdluli expects the billboards to be up by 2016, however the rollout will depend on the availability of funds.

She added that the Department of Environmental Affairs had picked up inefficiencies in the way that monitoring stations were being managed in the country.

“We are setting up an asset management system nationally that will help us to manage all the stations that are government owned and just see ahead of time if they need maintenance or new parts… because we have a duty to report compliance to the people of South Africa. It’s a duty given to us by the Constitution and the act,” she said.

Ekurhuleni was named as the country’s most polluted metro while one of the cleanest towns was Sutherland in the Northern Cape.

 

(adapted from SAnews.gov.za)