Research shows air quality worsened in 2019
By Tea Mariamidze
Wednesday, June 12
Non-governmental organization Georgia Alliance for Safe Roads held a presentation about the air quality indicators in Tbilisi which says that air quality has worsened in the capital in 2019 compared to the previous year.
The study carried out by the organization states that 90% of the cars in the country are outdated. From 2020, the catalysts will become obligatory for automobiles, but according to a survey presented by Georgia Alliance for Safe Roads, this reform is in danger.
The NGO took data from the air quality monitoring stations installed on Tsereteli Avenue which showed the existence of pollutants such as NO2, PM10, and PM2.5, which are especially dangerous to people's health and cause a number of diseases. According to the survey, these parameters at Tsereteli Avenue station exceed the annual norms.
The data showed that the quantity of nitrogen dioxide in the air has increased slightly, the primary source of which is an internal combustion engine.
According to the research, the fact that the number of cars has not changed significantly during the comparable period, and the NO2 is the main source of air pollution, special attention should be paid to this parameter when carrying out the mandatory technical inspection of the cars.
Also, while NGO was summing up the data of three months this year, it showed the PM2.5 amount has increased but it should be noted that in February and March 2019, PM2.5 pollution was reduced.
"Data of the first quarter of 2019 shows the air quality has more leading pollutants that are very dangerous for health, particularly nitrogen dioxide, solid particles and dust," Eka Laliashvili, representative of Georgia's Alliance for Safe Roads, said.
She noted that the fact that air pollution exceeds norms on Tsereteli Avenue raises reasonable doubts that air quality is not right in other busy parts of the city too.
According to new research, the contamination by PM10 is significantly reduced in comparison with 2018, and the total amount is below the permissible limit.
The survey of Georgia Alliance for Safe Roads was carried out with the help of CSO Capacities and Engaging Society for Sustainability (ACCESS) supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
To note, 114,830 out of 232,470 cars failed to pass the mandatory technical inspection from January 2018 to February 2019.
The information was released by the non-governmental organization Institute for the Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) last week.
IDFI also said that the main problem of air pollution in Georgia is car emissions.
