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Gearing up

Gearing up taking cognisance of the spiralling emission levels, Sri Lanka has recently drafted a national policy which aims to improve the country's air quality. The policy planning division of Sri Lanka's ministry of environment and natural resources has already swung into action, purchasing two gas analysers and one smoke metre for air quality monitoring.

According to the United States-Asia Environmental Partnership Programme, degradation of urban air quality in Sri Lanka is a major cause for concern. The situation in Colombo and other major cities is bleak, primarily due to mobile emissions. The Colombo Metropolitan Area accounts for 60 per cent of all vehicles. With the exception of sulphur dioxide, the transport sector is the biggest contributor of air pollutants.

The United Nations Environment Programme (unep) Regional Resource Centre for Asia

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