The Armenian government says it will modernize the country’s air quality monitoring system in accordance with the strictest standards of the World Health Organization.

The five-year project, drafted by the country’s environment ministry, involves the purchase of fourteen stationary and two mobile monitoring stations providing minimum coverage in Armenia that will meet international standards.

At a July air quality forum in Yerevan, Arpineh Panoyan, who heads the Ministry of Environment’s Atmospheric Policy Department, confessed that inspection agencies in Armenia lack the resources to ensure compliance with air pollution norms.

Air monitoring stations now operating in Armenia do not provide the necessary information on the content of fine dust particles in the air.

The five-year project, according to the ministry, will modernize the Yerevan Municipality’s Hydrometeorology and Monitoring Center’s chemical laboratory by expanding the list of monitored pollutants.

Yerevan officials have rejected data provided by independent monitors showing the level of air pollution in the capital was above average last year.

They were referring to data from the Swiss IQAir website. 

Last February, Gorik Avetisyan, Deputy Head of the Yerevan Municipality’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), said the equipment providing the data presented on the website is not professional and that the margin of error can reach forty percent.

See: Yerevan’s Air Pollution Problem: City Authorities Contest Disturbing International Data

Photo: Minister of Environment Hambardzum Matevosyan