A senior environmental official said the Department of Environment needs the support of other government agencies if it is to effectively rein in the pollution emitted from heavy vehicles in metropolises.
"A major problem facing us during the times of high air pollution is to control trucks and buses, which are 70% responsible. But addressing the pollution created by these vehicles does not only concern the DOE but rather demands a collective effort involving several organizations," Masoud Tajrishi, deputy for human environment at DOE, told ILNA on Saturday.
Tajrishi said his organization has set up task forces to come up with plans to curb the major source of pollution.
However, the DOE is struggling with constraints in funding a planned overhaul of the national bus and truck fleets, he lamented.
"The government has approved the allocation of $7 billion for the renewal of the fleets of buses and heavy trucks, but financing has proved a serious challenge for the government and it has yet to supply the required budget."
Shift of Focus
An initiative launched by the DOE to encourage the replacement of dilapidated vehicles stalled due to budget shortage, forcing the environmental authorities to redirect the focus of their efforts from renovation to maintenance, Tajrishi said.
"We had begun revamping the bus fleet using an autopilot method, but we hit problems. So we had to change our approach from replacement to repair… Insufficient budget has made us limit our efforts to helping maintain the status quo."
Winter months, when peak periods of pollution hit the capital Tehran, are approaching.
Tajrishi reminded the role of Iran's Meteorological Organization in helping fend off a critical situation by providing timely forecasts about upcoming temperature inversions.
"The Meteorological Organization should issue a 96-hour advance notice of the temperature inversion, so we would have enough time to head off a critical situation by banning the trucks from streets."
Every year with the drop in temperature in winter, a phenomenon known as temperature inversion occurs when cold air underpins warm air at higher altitudes, leading to the entrapment of air pollutants which causes heavy smog.
