The MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region has the second-highest concentration of gas flaring in the world, after Russia and the Caspian region.

 

The rapid industrialization and urbanization has resulted in the UAE having the highest per capita carbon dioxide emission rates in the world.

 

ADNOC and Masdar have launched the Middle East's first carbon capture use and storage project, awarding a US$122.5 million contract to build the facility

 

Fast paced construction activities, oil production, power plants, tourism etc are making air quality poorer. Recently the World Health Organization problem has listed the Middle Eastern countries as being most polluted.

 

The United Arab Emirates has been named as the most polluted country when looking at the volume of small particulate matter in the air, according to the latest report compiled by The World Bank. UAE had the world's highest exposure to its newly introduced PM 2.5 criteria, which measures tiny airborne pollutants smaller than 2.5 microns. The UAE's PM 2.5 level stood at 80 micrograms per cubic meter, more than China (73 micrograms) and India (32 micrograms).

 

WHO guideline says this should be less than 10. The fine particles of sand, dust and chemicals can deeply penetrate into the respiratory tract and also cause health problems and premature death. The data also showed that in many parts of the world, there is drastic increase in air pollution and has become the main environmental threat to health.

 

In 2010, almost 84 per cent of the world's population lived in areas where PM 2.5 exceeded the WHO guideline of 10. Pollution caused by high PM 2.5 levels also resulted in more than 3.2 million premature deaths globally.

 

Starting in 1991, many legislations like the Federal Law No. 12 of 2006 regulated the air quality. Ambient Air Quality Monitoring (AAQM) was started with six monitoring stations. Recently this was expanded to fourteen monitoring stations.

 

The AAQM network continuously monitored the criteria pollutants such as Carbon Monoxide (CO), Particulate Matter (PM10/PM25), Sulfur Dioxide (SO2), Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) and Ozone (O3) and results are evaluated based on air quality standards and the set goals. The results are being interpreted in a manner that is easily understood by the general public using air quality index such as clean air, light, significant and heavy pollution and high dust with reference to general health effects and safety warnings. With the exclusion of dust, DM-ED likewise consistently achieved its annual target of clean air days for the past years.

 

At the public level, UAE has also banned smoking of all tobacco products in all public buildings, including restaurants, cafes, and office buildings. More important is effort from every building owner and/or household to properly clean their Air conditioning ducts in the Middle East where the summer weather is extreme and breathing of air through air conditioners is a common practice. Dubai Municipality has confirmed that the air quality in the emirate conforms to the approved international standards and pollution hot-spot have been identified and will be closely monitored.

 

The level of air quality in Dubai reached 88 percent by the end of 2015, which is higher than the target level of 85 percent, news agency WAM reported.

Hussain Nasser Lootah, director general of Dubai Municipality, said the municipality has launched 13 smart stations to monitor the air quality in different locations covering industrial, commercial and residential areas as well as on the major roads of the emirate, he said.

  

Alya AbdulRahim Al Harmoudi, director of Environment Department at Dubai Municipality added that a new target of 90 percent air quality has been set for 2021.

 

Al Harmoudi also said that the Municipality is currently working on the launch of a website for air quality in the emirate, which aims to increase environmental awareness among citizens, residents and visitors on the causes of air pollution.