Iran's Department of Environment plans to overhaul its real-time electronic system of environmental checks on industrial facilities to crack down on any attempt to tamper with pollution reading, said the director of the DOE's Comprehensive Monitoring Office.
"We need to design an integrated system of supervision on polluting industries to ensure the accuracy and reliability of our findings… and prevent the manipulation of the online monitoring results," Shina Ansari said on Tuesday, adding that two teams of academics have offered to take up the project and presented their proposals.
"Large and medium industries are subject to the regulations mandating the installation of online monitoring equipment, and the issuance and renewal of operation permits hinges on meeting the requirement," she said in a talk with IRNA. The list of industrial enterprises that fall under those regulations and the parameters to be monitored have been identified, the environmental official said.
Ansari noted that data from real-time monitoring systems have revealed a 12% rise in air pollution from industrial smokestacks and a 13% increase in waste pollution in the last Iranian year that ended on March 20, compared with the year before.
"During the last year, 368 large industrial units were equipped with the online pollution control system, most of which were based in Tehran, Bushehr, Isfahan and Khuzestan, respectively," she added.
Besides, 267 wastewater treatment facilities have the online checking systems, with Tehran, Alborz, Khuzestan and Isfahan boasting the most equipped sites.
