No tests on our air quality

The ambient air quality in Springs and Thokoza is not measured, as these two air quality stations are not working.

Lebogang Ramashala, spokesman of Ekurhuleni Metro Municipality said the Springs ambient station, situated at Springs Old Boys Club on the corner Gilgil and Hobok Streets was supposed to be maintained by the metro.

It was handed back to Ekurhuleni Metro to maintain four years ago after the maintenance contract of Gauteng Department of Agricultural and Rural Development (GDARD) expired. It was maintained and commissioned by the province since 2001.

The Thokoza ambient station, at the entrance of the Thokoza Customer Care Area Municipal Offices, was burned by a strike of lightning. It also has problems with electricity.

Ramashala said these air quality stations would be repaired.

The Air Quality Sub-unit of Ekurhuleni’s Department of Environmental Resource Management was in the process of buying UPS machines for Thokoza’s station that would act as high voltage or electric breakers between the motherboard, data logger and gas analyser. The ambient stations will also be provided with lighting arrestor or catcher equipment.

She did not remark on how far repairs on Springs’ air quality station was.

“A service provider is appointed every two years to assist the metro with maintenance, repairs and calibration of the stations. Capacity building in a form of training of internal staff is part of service provider’s contract, but due to lack of staff and operational structure this capacity building progress is very slow. These ambient stations are highly technical with equipment manufactured overseas from countries like Germany and Sweden.”

She said South Africa had not more than three good service providers that can do this work, as it is a critical scarce skill.

The ambient stations are commissioned at strategic points to provide the metro with measurements of the level of air pollution, as prescribed by the Air Quality Act, 2004.

Ekurhuleni as an Atmospheric Emission Licensing Authority must perform these ambient air monitoring functions by regulating air pollution sources to ensure that prescribed standards are not exceeded.

The readings are fluctuating, depending on the type of pollutant from different sources and air pollutants carried from other provinces and cities.

Ramashala said “particulate matters” were a serious problem in Ekurhuleni. It came from different sources such as vehicles, industries, coal burning, agricultural activities and photochemical reactions is exceeding the standards throughout the year.

The other pollutants such as SO2 (Sulphurdioxide, Carbonmonoxide) exceed the standards either due to an incident or breakdowns from industrial processes, veld fires, illegal burning of waste, tyres or plastics in the wind direction of the ambient station.