EU shares its experience on air quality management with Central Asia

NUR-SULTAN. KAZINFORM More than 20 Kazakh national experts, representatives of ministries and industries were trained and learned from the EU experience on air quality management as part of the EU's tailor-made support to Central Asia (CA) on environmental project preparation. The training is organized by the EU-funded project WECOOP in cooperation with International Green Technologies and Investments Centre (IGTIC) and aims to assist Kazakhstan in improving its air quality monitoring and management capabilities.

According to Kazhydromet, over the past 5 years in the atmosphere of most cities of Kazakhstan the average concentration of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and particulate matters (PM) has regularly been exceeding the permissible exposure limit, which seriously affects the central nervous, cardiovascular, respiratory and reproductive systems and cause headache, anxiety, breathing problems, lung cancer, and other diseases. The sources of pollution in Kazakhstan and the region are mostly man-made and include transport, fuel combustion (including individual heating systems), industry, agriculture, and waste disposal at landfills, the official website of the Delegation of the European Union to Kazakhstan reads.

Since 1970s, the EU has achieved a considerable progress in air quality management by improving the fuel quality, controlling emissions and integrating the environmental standards into the transport and energy fields. The EU provides the financial and technical assistance to different countries in the world, including to Central Asian states, to help them improve the national legislation and air quality management systems. During the two-day training, the participants discussed air quality management principles and standards, as well as industrial and urban air pollution dispersion models.

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