Mepa acquires new air monitoring mobile station

Environment minister Mario de Marco hailed the arrival of a new air monitoring mobile station for the Malta Environment and Planning Authority (Mepa).

"We have to go beyond our European Union obligations. According to the directives it is enough to have three monitoring stations, but Mepa thought that having four stations is better then three, and five is better then four," the minister said.

He added that the stations do not resolve the problem of air pollution but the data collected is vital for the authority which centres its policies on the data collected from such stations.

"When pollution exceeds set limits in a particular area, Mepa together with other authorities such as Transport Malta work out a solution, such as introducing new traffic management arrangements or introduce other measures," de Marco said.

De Marco said the new €173,000 van will compliment the authority's monitoring department and forms part of the €4.6 million project aimed at enhancing Malta's capacity in air quality control.

At the moment Mepa has five fixed monitoring stations, in Msida, Attard, Zejtun, Kordin and Gharb. The authority also has 130 passive diffusive tubes in 44 different locations, which give indication of the air quality, especially in regards to volatile organic pollutants.

The authority's monitoring unit manager Kevin Mercieca explained that the mobile station will not only replace the stationary units when these are undergoing maintenance but will also be used to carry out further investigations and collect data from different sites.

The environment minister explained that the two main sources of air pollution in Malta are the two power plants, in Marsa and Delimara, and cars. De Marco said that Malta has the fifth highest rate of cars per person ratio in the world and the second highest rate in Europe.

According to the minister Malta has 750 vehicles per 1000 persons, however a more worrying fact is the average age of cars in Malta, which hovers above 13 years.

De Marco said the high rate of cars in Malta "aggravates" the air pollution problem. Asked what incentives the government will introduce, de Marco said he "hoped" that the car scrappage scheme will be extended.

The scheme, introduced in 2011, allows 3,000 old cars to be scrapped and their owners are entitled for a subsidy of up to €2,000 of the value of their new Euro V-engine car. In 2011 the scheme was taken up completely and in the current year up to 2274 applications were processed.

He also gave an indication that following the success of the car scrapping scheme in the last couple of years, the ministry is in talks with Transport Malta and the Finance Ministry to introduce schemes to encourage the replacement of old commercial vehicles with Euro-VI engine vehicles.

Speaking on the main sources of pollution, Kevin Mercieca pointed out that the pollution coming from power plants will be controlled thanks to the new Delimara extension and the interconnector, which will translate into the closure of the Marsa power station once it is completed.