KARACHI, April 7: Two fixed stations and one mobile laboratory has started generating data pertaining to ambient air quality in the city under a programme funded by Japan, sources in the Sindh Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) said on Saturday.

Though a sort of testing operation, the data generation started last week is continuing without any failure, the source said, adding that interpretation of data should, however, take some time.

Beside continuous monitoring of air emissions at two fixed stations – one at Sepa head office in Korangi and another on the premises of what previously was the DC (Central) Office –,monitoring of liquid effluents would be undertaken through mobile laboratories.

At present, the lab stationed at the Sepa office is generating air quality data, it is learnt.

Japanese government has provided about Rs973 million through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for the project, known as ‘Establishment of Environmental Monitoring System in Pakistan’. The systems have been established to do a continuous monitoring of air emissions and liquid effluents in major cities — Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Peshawar and Islamabad — and to help devise a plan based on the monitoring data for protecting the local environment.

The major objectives of the project, which would run for two years in the first stage, are to develop capacity of monitoring plan designing, establish environmental standards, develop capacity of documentation of environment assessment guidelines and enhance the monitoring system.

The fixed and stationary monitoring will focus on major quality parameters like CO, NOx, O3, SO2, THC and SPM along with meteorological data of wind speed and direction, temperature and solar radiation, dust, clean and polluted water, sludge coming out of factories, etc., said a Sepa official.

Director of the Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pepa) Zia-ul-Islam told Dawn that at all three stations in Karachi, three in Lahore, two in Islamabad and one each in Peshawar and Quetta were handed over to the respective environmental protection agencies on March 31 as per the plan and made operational accordingly.

He said that the stations had been interlinked through cellular communication system whereas reliable data was being collected in Islamabad regularly. Due to some power fluctuation, there have been some problems at one or two stations, he said.