P300 million needed for 33 air monitoring stations

MANILA, Philippines — At least P300 million is needed to upgrade 33 air monitoring stations in Metro Manila to ensure accurate readings amid the smog in the National Capital Region (NCR), according to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

“It is a multi-year proposal for the next five years or from 2024 to 2028. In the last three years of the project, we will be shifting to sensors. We just need to validate its effectiveness in the second and third year,” Environment Assistant Secretary Gilbert Gonzales told The STAR.

“Of the eight (stations) that were previously offline, we were able to fix four so at least four more need to be repaired as we need to purchase spare parts and it takes a while,” he added.

Gonzales noted that the air quality in Manila has improved after the smog or smoke fog on Sept. 22.

“So far, the air in Metro Manila is OK except when we experienced haze. The air quality index that we got that time was somewhat elevated but it did not reach the emergency level. There were areas with unhealthy conditions,” he said.