Air Pollution in UAE 

General Air Quality in UAE

 

The UAE's air quality is relatively good – it does not suffer from the infamous smog that blankets major cities such as Mexico City, Tehran or Beijing.

 

As on 2011 , UAE was at 8th position of top 10 countries with dirtiest air.

 

As on 2014 , UAE showed improvement in it's ambient air quality .Air pollution at 55.95 (UAE 34th country out of 59) and Air Quality at 44.05 (26th out of 59).

 

Pollution levels in the UAE are safe for residents.

 

Rapid urbanization having an impact on air quality

 

 

While the overall air quality in UAE is better than in many developed countries,but the issue will probably need more attention as the country grows. We have great cities here, which are growing and every time there is growth in human activity, there is an increase in pollution.

 

Dubai is the second largest Emirate in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in terms of population and land area. It has population of about 750000 and total land area of 4000 sq. km with about 90% of the population lives in the urban area comprising 15% of the total area. The city of Dubai is the most trading center in the UAE and has a diversified economy. Over the last 25 years this city has improved dramatically in respect to road traffic, Urban and industrial development. It is still the scence of a continuous modernization.

 

The increasing motor vehicle fleet as well as the presence of large power stations, oil/gas refineries, cement manufacturing, smelting plants and ongoing construction and demolition activities have a greatest impact on the air quality of the city.

Busier roads, expanding airports, new construction, aspirations to host global events and the growth of tourism as part of the national economy make air quality an ever more important issue. And we cannot just blame desert conditions: in Abu Dhabi, 30 to 40 per cent of particulate pollutants come from human activities.

 

There are national guidelines and most pollutants are within these standards but some pollutants are above the standards  as per  research director of the Abu Dhabi branch of the Norwegian Institute for Air Research.

 

Particulate matter (PM) – tiny particles of sand, dust or chemicals – is one pollutant that registers elevated levels. Nitrogen oxide, usually released in the combustion of fossil fuels, and ground-level ozone, or smog, which is formed when some chemicals released from human activities react with substances already in the atmosphere in the presence of sunlight, are two other substances that show elevated concentrations .

 

PM and ground-level ozone, especially in the summer, were the two pollutants most commonly registering high concentrations in Dubai.

 

Frequent Dust Storms having impact on air quality

 

Naturally airborne dust particles and major sand storms adversely affect air quality, especially in times of high humidity

 

UAE experiences dust storms, usually in February-March and June-August. Strong winds pick up momentum and sweep dust from the desert, spreading it across the region. The results are more than just irritating -both a safety and a health hazard.

 

 

Clustering of air quality problem

 

Air-quality problems are severe around quarries and cement plants, particularly in Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah(Northern states/emirates of UAE). Since 2008, regulation of quarries has steadily been tightened.

 

A large part of urban pollution comes from a few offenders. Badly maintained lorries and buses cough out dark fumes. The chimney of a prominent Dubai hotel frequently belches dirty smoke.

 

Portable diesel generators are common on building sites. Noisy, dirty and expensive to run, they could be replaced with hybrid systems that combine solar panels with diesel or battery back-up.

 

In the built-up areas of Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah, road traffic is one of the biggest polluters. Strong summer sunlight acts on vapour from fuels and fumes from exhausts to produce ozone, which irritates eyes and causes asthma and bronchitis.

 

Ozone-forming or particle-forming substances are emitted locally by the transport, mineral excavation and hydrocarbon industries.

 

Current measures to monitor and control Air pollution

 

Air quality is one of the leading priorities in the UAE because it is associated directly with human health, the environment and its effect on the economy.

It has a target of 90 per cent adherence to the WHO air quality guidelines by 2021. Efforts have been made to properly monitor and regulate emission levels throughout the UAE in the past few years.

 

Measuring the problem is crucial to tackling it, especially in ing residents with existing health problems that air pollution may exacerbate. Local authorities have taken steps to measure pollution levels with Abu Dhabi and Dubai providing real-time information, publicly available online, on the concentration of common pollutants, with measurements taken regularly at stations throughout the two cities.

 

In the capital, the Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi (EAD) has been doing detailed monitoring of particulate matter pollution, looking at levels of particles, known as PM10, which are only 10 micrometres in size.They are also monitoring levels of the even smaller PM2.5 particles, which are especially harmful as they are able to penetrate in the lungs when inhaled. In general , particles smaller than the width of a human hair can penetrate deeply into the lungs.

 

Abu Dhabi is operating and maintaining the 20 stations in the Abu Dhabi Air Quality Monitoring Station Network, closely checking levels of sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, particulate matter, hydrogen sulphide and methane. In the past five years, they have only rarely recorded levels that are above the  recommended limits, apart from very occasional spikes in ozone levels, the increases are invariably caused by desert dust storms.

The data from monitoring stations is uploaded in real time to a public website, which is enormously useful to people with respiratory problems, as they can check their local air quality online and manage their own health in a better way.

 

The Environment Protection and Safety Section (EPSS) of the Environment Department is responsible for the monitoring of air quality and the control of air pollution in Dubai.

 

Since 1988 air monitoring has been in progress to provide the basic data necessary for air quality control programs.

In 1993 / 1994 a new air monitoring network as set up to greatly expand this air monitoring capability. From that time onwards additional air analyzers were placed to meet the air quality monitoring demand for determining the exposure of the public to air pollution.

 

There are currently 46 air quality monitoring stations, in addition to a range of dust monitoring stations in crusher and quarry sites as well as cement factories .

 

To ensure that the policy and objective are being met, the EPSS keeps a close watch on air quality through development of the air quality management system (AQMS) which involves continuous monitoring of the air quality at different sites within the Dubai air shed (refer to annex 1). Priority monitoring is focused in industrial, high volume traffic flow and sensitive areas.

 

The purpose of the network is to provide information to judge compliance with air quality standards, determine the diurnal/annual trend of air pollutant concentrations, determine where new air quality management actions are needed and assess land use plans and industrial or transportation projects.

 

The Municipality also thoroughly evaluates the environmental impact of highly polluting industries. A permit will be issued only to those new industries that are complying with the emission standards. Regular inspections are conducted to ensure that the regulations continue to be met by existing industries. 

Dubai Municipality monitors the air quality every hour and determines the Air Quality Index (AQI)to enhance the public understanding of air pollution across Dubai. The AQI benefits the general public in reporting the daily air quality providing them clear, understandable and consistent information regarding air quality across Dubai and associated health risks of air pollution.   The AQI provides information on each pollutant concentrations for ground-level ozone, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter. The index is 'normalized' across pollutants so that an index value of 100 represents the level of health protection associated with the health-based standard for each pollutant and an Index value of 150 represents the significant harm level.

Cleaner-burning compressed natural gas is introduced as a fuel for taxis, trucks and buses.

 

Electric cars and hybrid cars are being promoted.

 

Electric or green buses are increasing in numbers.

 

Cityscape Global with it's environmentally friendly theme is focusing on Sustainable principles, strategies and practices.

Cityscape  is the world's largest networking exhibition and conference on property dveelopment , is a trade show for real estate in Dubai attended by investors , banks , financial institutions, commercial & residential property developers, high-net-worth individuals, property advisers, architects, designers,  municipal & regional government authorities, construction companies, senior executives of key organisations involved in the design and construction.

 

 

UAE is becoming the flagship of sustainable development .The region is at the forefront of environmental policies, procedures and regulations and each real estate developer is taking responsibility of going that extra mile and pushing the boundaries of sustainable development.

 

 

UAE is also consistently reducing the Sulphur content in diesel to reduce air pollution.

 

 

Green Engine oil is  introduced which is a type of eco- friendly product. 

 

 

 

Recent deregularisation in petrol prices  is another step in right direction to curb carbon emission due to cars and hence reducing pollution automatically.

 

Renewables, and especially solar, will have a much larger role sooner than we ever expected in the UAE . Infact work is in full progress and very soon solar and wind may be the cheapest source of power in UAE which means automatically air pollution will be reduced.

 

Scope of Improvement : What more to be done

 

Biodegradable, environmentally-friendly chemicals can help to keep down dust while consuming less water.

 

And it may be transport where an integrated strategy is most needed: tighter enforcement on the worst vehicles, cleaner engines and more public transport.

 

Industries should burn fuel oil with low sulphur content , install the best practicable air pollution control facilities and properly maintain air pollution source equipment and control facilities and use low emission technology available.

 

One possibility is to sharply increase registration fees on more polluting vehicles, and use the revenues to offer rebates on low-emission vehicles.

 

The public and industry should avoid open burning of trash.

 

Owners of motor vehicles should use unleaded fuel or low pollutant emission fuel , properly maintain their vehicles, tune their engines regularly, should not tamper emission control devices and observe good driving habits. The motor vehicle is one of the major sources of air pollution. Fast driving and hard accelerations produces more pollutants per kilometer travelled.Cars and Trucks should not be overloaded as overload increases fuel consumption and pollutant emissions.

 

We should report to municipalities or Environment Protection and Safety Section about any industrial and commercial establishments emitting uncontrolled smoke, odour and other emissions for investigations.

 

We should participate in clean-up programs organized by government or private institution.

 

Schools/Educators/Parents should pass on to students or children an understanding of environmental issues

Conclusion

 

In general, UAE has good air quality with the exception of high levels of particulates in summer mainly of natural origin. However, as the city grows threat to air quality increases. The ozone level is becoming high due to increase in motor vehicle fleet.

 

In conclusion, air pollution is one of big pollution types that impact the environment negatively in UAE. The main two solution resources in the UAE as the government see are vehicles and industries. Their impact is harmful on the atmosphere. The governments try to reduce this impact by many steps.

 

Clean air is an essential requirement for community health, the health of vegetation, the protection of paint works and the useful life of other materials. Clean air is essential to maintaining the delicate balance of life on this planet not just for humans, but also for wildlife, vegetation, water and soil.  We all must play our part to maintain good air quality for the future.

 

  Regulations for better air quality in UAE

To improve UAE's air quality and to protect the health of millions of residents,  Ministry of  Environment and Water is seeking to further shore up UAE legislation and  tighten government limits on emissions from car exhausts, power plants and heavy industry in the UAE.

 

Director of Air Quality Department at the ministry, said on the first day of the Air Quality and Noise Control Conference this week that a review for the allowable emission levels for vehicles in petrol and diesel engines is currently under way.

 

The environment ministry  wants to see more environmentally friendly vehicles such as those that run on electricity. Plan is underway to create incentives for people to use those vehicles and to ultimately remove old, high-emission vehicles from the streets of the UAE.

 

The latest push to strengthen national air quality standards could put new teeth in existing laws on the books such as Federal Law No 24, enacted in 1999 to impose 'standards and limits' on pollution-emitting corporations and individuals.

 

New air-quality laws to create a new 'national police to improve air quality' were reviewed by the environment ministry in 2012 to help protect more than 9 million UAE residents and help them breathe easier.

 

Additionally, the environment ministry is hoping to make the otherwise highly technical Air Quality Index (AQI), available to the public in a simplified manner.

 

The AQI is a daily index developed to represent our air quality and is a simplified representation of the data to determine the extent of air quality at each National Air Quality station throughout the UAE.

 

By making the data public Ministry is hoping to address air quality concerns and to make individuals become inspectors and encourage them to identify and report incidents of things that can ultimately affect their health and that of others to the concerned authorities.

 

In fact, the pre-existing Abu Dhabi Environment Agency (EAD) web portal to monitor air quality is currently highly used by school students but experts wish that more individuals use this service for their own benefit.

 

Going to the www.adairquality.ae website enables users to see how good or bad the air quality is in their area that day and help them make the necessary adjustments to their day accordingly, especially for more sensitive individuals such as children and asthmatics.

 

Ministry is encouraging public to report cases of environmental pollution to local authorities and to monitor air quality in their local neighbourhoods to determine whether additional precautions need to be taken on a given day.

 

AIR POLLUTION IN YEMEN  

 

Air pollution in Yemen is caused by a variety of factors , including emissions from vehicles , power plants and the widespread use of heavy construction tools such as industrial saws. The main source of air pollution , however, particularly in cities such as Sana'a , is emissions from cars and other vehicles. In Sana'a there are more than 300,000 vehicles , many of which are very old having being brought into the country by returning Yemenis after the Gulf war in 1990. After the 1990 Gulf War, thousands of Yemenis returned to their homes and brought their cars with them. A lot of the cars were very old and polluted the environment. The majority of these vehicles use leaded gasoline or local diesel, which contains a high level  of impurities. 

 

Infact , Yemen remains one of the few countries worldwide that continues to use leaded gasoline in it's cars and other vehicles. There are very few lead-free petrol stations. 

The pollutant concentrations are  estimated to be several times higher than the set standards for air quality.

 

Air pollution is unpleasant and unhealthy. Breathing highly polluted air from exhaust fumes on daily basis can cause severe respiratory and renal problems. Air pollution represents a financial and environmental burden on Yemeni government. In 2008 , Yemen's Ministry of Environment and Water acknowledged the severity of the problem and started working on national strategy to reduce air pollution. The authorities have since then implemented a few simple measures to improve the air quality e.g. vehicles which were manufactured before year 2000 are no longer permitted entry into the country. The authorities have also reduced the tax on new cars to encourage more people to invest in newly built , modern and more environmentally friendly vehicles.

 

Another  source of air pollution in Yemen , particularly around it's coastal areas, is the oil industry. Although oil accounts for a large part of Yemen's revenue and is an invaluable economic resource, it's production , exploration and transportation have contributed significantly to air pollution in coastal and marine areas.

 

Urbanisation , desalination plants , mining , quarrying are all responsible for worsening air pollution in Yemen.

 

The Ministry of Water and Environment (MWE) is working to reduce air pollution caused by vehicle emissions and thus save on associated health costs amounting to an estimated US$100 million a year in Sanaa alone. 

The worst is the ongoing " Yemeni Civil War "that began in March 2015 between two factions claiming to constitute the Yemeni government, along with their supporters and allies. As air raids continue to batter  Yemen, it is heavily polluting it's air and leaving deep environmental scars.

 

 

AIR QUALITY  IN QATAR 

 

Doha's(Qatar's capital)  air is among the most polluted in the world.

 

Qatar ranked the second-most polluted country in the world in 2014 after Pakistan, a World Health Organization (WHO) report showed.

 

The "Ambient (Outdoor) air pollution in cities database 2014" monitored outdoor air pollution from around 1,600 cities in 91 countries, as the monitoring process covered the period from 2008 till 2013.

 

It measures particulate matter, which are small and large droplets in the air. It concluded that Doha had the 12th highest average levels of small and fine particles, known as PM2.5, which can penetrate the respiratory tract and increase the risk of respiratory infections, lung cancer, heart disease and stroke.

 

These particles – which often cannot be seen with the naked eye – are made up of heavy metals and toxic organic compounds, and originate from vehicle exhaust, smelting plants and the burning of organic materials.

 

Larger particles – PM10 – are mostly caused by dust and smoke. In this category, Doha ranked just outside the top 30.

 

For precise measurement, the air's quality was represented by 'annual mean concentration of fine particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5) according to WHO. These concentrations were set by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which regulates and protects human health and environmental affairs.

 

While the Qatar ministry's recent report didn't benchmark Qatar against other countries, it showed that local air pollution levels frequently exceed the WHO's recommendations as well as Qatar's own targets, which are more lax than the international standards.

 

For example, Qatar's national air quality standards for PM10 are 150 ug/m3 for 24 hours average concentration and 50 ug/m3 for the annual average concentration.

 

By comparison, the WHO's standards for PM10 are 50 ug/m3 for the 24-hour average – one third of Qatar's target – and 20 ug/m3 for the annual average concentration, which is less than half of the national figure.

 

The level of fine particles in the air in Qatar is almost six times above the permissible limit, research has shown.

 

 

Figures released by the air quality monitoring station at Qatar University showed that air pollutants are at 296 micrograms per cubic meter, when the permitted level is 50 micrograms per cubic meter.

 

 

Particle pollutants in Doha multiplied at a yearly rate of 5.4% between 2007 and 2010, according to QSA's 2011 Sustainable Development Indicators report.

 

The rise in pollution can be related to the expanding manufacturing industry and construction projects in the small country, in addition to the growing road congestion as the country's population increases, according to official statistics .

 

Construction dust from land clearing, diesel engines, demolition, burning, concrete mixing and wood cutting contributes to this airborne matter count.

 

The rise of Qatar's airport's traffic is another contributing factor to the pollution emergency. The traffic at Qatar's Doha Hamad International Airport (HIA) rose 11.4 percent in 2014 in July 2014, in comparison to traffic at the old Doha International Airport (DOH) July 2013 traffic, according to the Center for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA).

 

Thus , Sand and dust generated by Qatar's booming construction industry, as well as transportation emissions, are the primary causes of air pollution in Doha.

 

Qatar's carbon monoxide pollution levels are extremely low – one fortieth of the suggested limit, according to the Qatar Statistics Authority (QSA)'s Environment Day study. Ozone, sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide levels lie well below their ceilings, too. So why is Qatar failing resolutely in one category, airborne particulate matter?

 

The annual standard for particulate matter – essentially airborne dust and mineral particles – in Qatar is 50 micrograms per cubic metre, according to Qatari legislation. Basically, Qatar seems to be breaking its own law levels range from 105 to 185 micrograms per cubic metre at the Aspire Zone, Qatar University and the Corniche. So the country gets a four-out-of-five for adhering to air quality standards.But out of the five, particulate matter is the most hazardous to human health, according to the QSA. 

Sources :

Envirocities magazine

The National

Dubai Municipality portal

Environment Agency-Abu Dhabi portal

http://www.numbeo.com

Qatar Today

Qatar Statistics Authority (QSA)

Numbeo