Japan Signs Deal to Help Curb Tehran Air Pollution

Japan International Cooperation Agency is to provide technical and financial assistance to Iranian officials to curtail air pollution in its sprawling capital Tehran over a four-year period.

Based on a contract with Tehran Air Quality Control Company, a subsidiary of Tehran Municipality, Japanese experts will cooperate with the company and the provincial office of the Department of Environment to identify and classify the main sources of pollution in the metropolis.

The project has been estimated to cost about $7 million that will be fully paid by the Japanese side in the form of a grant, IRNA reported.  

According to Vahid Hosseini, the company's director, negotiations between Iran and Japan continued for two years before the contract was finally signed on Monday.

"Studies have already been conducted on sources of pollutants in cooperation with JICA, but we need more precise details, for instance, about ozone and hydrocarbons," he said, hoping that effective laws will also be passed in this regard.

Iran has held talks with Japan over transfer of technology in the past two years.

"The Japanese government has approved plans to offer related equipment to Iran and air analysis tools will be imported from Japan after a separate contract has been signed by Tehran Municipality," he said.

The deal will involve the import of between $12.5 million and $13 million worth of equipment from Japan.

Tehran authorities have already initiated plans to control the capital's air pollution including the ban on the sale of carbureted motorcycles approved last year.

The distribution of standard fuel, elimination of dilapidated and diesel-fueled vehicles, renewal of taxi fleet and installation of soot filters are among other measures underway.

Hosseini noted that the present cooperation is not the final solution either and is only a piece of a larger puzzle, adding that the findings of the current scheme will be implemented in other metropolises struggling with air pollution.

Yukihiro Kobayashi, the head of Iran's JICA office, said Japanese experts will share their knowhow and expertise about combating air pollution with Iranians.

"We can now embark on a new project based on our previous findings in the 1990s," he said.  Addressing environmental problems is one of JICA’s priorities in Iran. It has so far launched programs on air pollution studies as well as forest and wetland management.