Nguyen Trai - Khuat Duy Tien traffic jams day and night, making Hanoi more polluted

Air pollution is a particularly serious environmental problem in Hanoi and many northern provinces. Since the beginning of winter, Hanoi has experienced many periods of severe and prolonged air pollution.

According to research and inventory results of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and the World Bank, traffic (including road dust) is the main source of pollution (contributing 58-74%) to the city's atmosphere.

Traffic jams day and night make the air more polluted.

At the Seminar on Solutions for Implementing Low Emission Zones in Hanoi organized by Tien Phong Newspaper, Ms. Luu Thi Thanh Chi - Deputy Head of the Department of Environmental Management, Hanoi Department of Natural Resources and Environment said that air pollution is always a burning issue at the end of the year. Hanoi has a higher level of air pollution than Ho Chi Minh City due to many reasons.

The main reason is unfavorable weather conditions, air cannot convect upwards. At low altitudes there is a lot of fog making the air dense and stagnant.

"Another reason is that at the end of the year, the traffic volume in the city and from the provinces to Hanoi is higher than at other times of the year. Recently, the press has reported a lot about traffic congestion on Nguyen Trai, Khuat Duy Tien, and the beltways, which are congested all day and still congested at night. These past few days, Khuat Duy Tien and Nguyen Trai have been very painful - that is also one of the causes of high air pollution. Normally, air pollution will decrease at night, but due to the large traffic volume and congestion until night, air quality is affected all day and night," said Ms. Chi.

According to Ms. Chi, statistics from the fourth quarter at the fixed and continuous monitoring stations in the city showed that the air pollution index reached a poor level of 48.91% and a bad level of 44.37%. The time when air quality affects people's health is more than the whole year.

Therefore, Hanoi has included low emission zones in the Capital Law to reduce air pollution from traffic. This is a breakthrough for Hanoi, as well as the whole country, to develop green - clean - convenient - low-cost transportation, limiting personal vehicles.

The low emission zone will initially be piloted in Hoan Kiem and Ba Dinh districts. These are two districts with high population density and have the foundations to develop a low emission zone.

Air has legs, pollution spreads from place to place

Ms. Nguyen Hoang Anh - Head of the Department of Environmental Quality Management, Department of Environmental Pollution Control, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment said that through monitoring air quality on the website of the General Department of Environment, it can be seen that the level of pollution is increasing over the years, this is a really worrying issue. Air "has legs", not just where pollution occurs, pollution stays there, but pollution spreads from one place to another. Air quality is greatly affected by weather and climate, especially at the end of the year, it is greatly affected, so it is necessary to have a general view to see which are subjective factors, which are objective factors when considering the causes of air pollution.

There are 6 main groups of causes leading to air pollution, including: Construction; transportation; industrial production; open burning; people's livelihood and weather and climate. Pollution often breaks out at the end of the year due to the peak of socio-economic activities, massive construction, bustling trade, factories increasing their maximum capacity, plus the "warm blanket" of the weather and climate causing the air pollution index to increase dramatically.