PANAJI
The latest air quality monitoring reports released by the Goa State Pollution Control Board have revealed that all the five towns of Goa where monitoring is taking place have exceeded the annual limits when judged by the PM10 microgram per cubic metre of air (µg/m3) even as the air quality when it came to other parameters including Nitrogen Oxide and Sulphur Dioxide was significantly within the limits.
Among the five towns of Goa based on annual PM10 averages Mapusa scored a high of 95.9 µg/m3 followed by Vasco da Gama at 82.8 µg/m3, Ponda at 78.8 µg/m3 Panaji at 75.2 µg/m3 and finally Margao at 68.7 µg/m3.
The annual limits are fixed at 60 µg/m3.
Last year too Mapusa recorded the worst air quality, with a reading 79.70 microgram per cubic metre of air
(µg/m3).
Last year the figures for air pollution control were borderline in many towns and above limits in many others. The annual trend during 2015-16 for Vasco stood at 60.57 µg/m3 for PM10 sized dust, making it just within the limits. Panaji’s figures stood at 64.85 µg/m3 while that of Margao and Ponda stood at 53.88 µg/m3 and 44.58 µg/m3.
Among industrial areas, Mormugao Port Trust is by far the most polluted with particulate matter levels exceeding limits both for the dust sized 10 and 2.5. MPT recorded a PM 10 reading of 126.2 µg/m3.
Among other industrial areas, Cuncolim was the most polluted with a PM10 reading of 73 µg/m3 while Kundaim and Tuem recorded readings of 62.9 and 61.4 respectively.
