Deputy Head of Tehran City Council (TCC) Hassan Bayadi said Tuesday the Department of Environment (DoE) should accept responsibility for the dangerous air pollution that has hit the capital for several weeks, Iran Daily reported.
"The devices for measuring air pollution levels provide more dangerous information and we seem to be doing little if anything. If we only stick to issuing warnings, what will it achieve? How do we respond to the people about this pollution?
"True, we all regret the pollution levels in the mass media...But nothing happens after that. The city council only issues warnings and does not deliver anything. This is a weakness of the council," Bayadi told a TCC meeting, IRIB reported.
Elaborating on the troubling air quality in the sprawling metropolis, he said, "We only complain. Somebody should eventually be held accountable for these complaints. By doing so, we have only increased the people's concern and disappointment. When we talk about the problem of pollution, they (relevant officials) define air pollution, healthy air and oxygen for us. We have no need for definitions...We want them to deliver."
He noted that the council had long been warning about old and dilapidated textures in sections of the city and the dangers associated with natural disasters, in particular earthquakes.
"But, the problem is that Tehran Renovation Organization is not doing anything in this regard. It has become used to organizing conferences, spending money...It does not even pay its contractors!" he said.
Tehran's air quality index was at the alert level for more than four consecutive weeks during the past month.
This led to increase in emergency medical assistance to patients suffering from heart and respiratory problems by a huge 60 percent due to the air pollution in Tehran. Some positive measures, such as designating odd-even days for car plates, closure of polluting factories and strong emphasis on upholding standards, had been taken to help curb the dangerous pollution.
The main pollutants of Tehran's air are particulates, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide. Tehran's air pollution is measured on the basis of it being pure, healthy, unhealthy, very unhealthy and alert, emergency and critical levels.
...