A recent study carried out by the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) and international agencies shows the air in the capital city has contamination levels higher than the air quality guideline values recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).
While the WHO establishes a annual guideline value for PM 2.5 (Particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 µm) at 10 µg/m3, the levels detected in Santo Domingo amount to 35.44 µg/m3, according to the recent study commissioned with the support of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). As for soot or black carbon, a component of particulate matter, the levels found to be 14.75 (µg/m 3).
“This is even more important at this time of a worldwide Covid-19 pandemic, which is generally affecting the upper respiratory tract, and is a greater cause for concern,” said the Deputy Minister of Hydrocarbons, Alberto Reyes, when presenting the study to Minister Antonio Isa Conde on 11 August 2020.
The project “Cleaner and More Efficient Fuels and Vehicles” was carried out with the support of UNEP, the Global Fuel Economy Initiative (GFEI), the Clean Fuels and Diesel Vehicles Initiative -as part of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition to Reduce Short-Lived Climate Pollutants (CCAC) — and the Partnership for Clean Fuels and Vehicles (PCFV), with funding from the FIA Foundation, the European Union and the Global Environment Facility (GEF).
This project has been assisted by the technical partners of CEGESTI, from Costa Rica, the Mario Molina Center Chile (CMMCh) and locally by J&J Consulting SAS, institutions that have been in coordination with the MEM for the execution of this project.
Other findings
Research was also carried out for the “Establishment of baseline for fuel economy of light vehicles 2005-2015.” This report established that the average consumption of light vehicles in 2015 was 9.85 Lge (liters of gasoline equivalent)/100 km, slightly above the average for Latin America for the same year at 9.50 Lge/100 km, according to data from the UNEP Air Quality Unit.
The average air emissions of light vehicles in the country based on 2015, is 229 g CO2 / km. The level for developed countries is on average 150 g CO2 / km. The Latin American average is 180 g CO2 / km, for the same year in both cases.
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Ministry of Energy & Mines
13 August 2020