By Nangamso Mabindla
07 June 2007

THE quality of the air in the Buffalo City township of Zwelitsha outside King William’s Town will now be monitored, thanks to the city’s second air quality monitoring station.

It was opened in the township on Wednesday, 6 June.

The aim of the R900 000 state-of-the art air quality monitoring station is to gauge the quality of air in the city and to look at ways of handling pollution. The computerised controller will analyse the amount of pollution coming from the factories around Zwelitsha and the emissions coming from cars.

Public safety, health and disaster management portfolio head Mankomo Pango said the air quality controller was the result of the Air Quality Act of 2005.

“In the last two years Buffalo City Municipality has tackled the challenge of this new Act and has achieved remarkable progress in terms of things stipulated in [it],” she said.

One of its actions was to open the two monitoring stations, one in East London and the other in Zwelitsha. “In line with our constitutional obligation this station has been deliberately established here in Zwelitsha so that we can monitor the air quality situation in order to gauge what effects there may be on the local population.”

Pango said the City had also identified seven passive monitoring sites. “In addition to the two sophisticated monitoring stations, seven passive monitoring sites have been identified and passive sampling has commenced,” she said, adding that the programme would be completed in 2008.

Using a computer that will gather emission information, the air quality controller will be able to measure the amount of harmful gases in the atmosphere from specific factories.

With this information, the City will be able to approach those companies emitting harmful gases into the atmosphere and urge them to lower the output of these gases.