CHAPTER V

MONITORING NETWORK FOR AIR AND
WATER QUALITY

The four air quality categories are:

• Critical pollution (C) : when EF is more than 1.5;
• High pollution (H) : when the EF is between 1.0 - 1.5;
• Moderate pollution (M) : with and EF between 0.5 - 1.0; and
• Low pollution (L) : where the EF is less than 0.5.

The air quality assessment was done for 139 monitoring locations (in 64 cities/towns), out of which 68 are in residential, 68 in industrial and 3 in sensitive areas. At 57 locations (27 residential + 30 industrial), data were insufficient (< 50 monitoring days in the year) with respect to gaseous pollutants and at 72 locations (41 residential + 31 industrial) with respect to SPM. Such locations have not been considered for air quality assessment.

Table 5.1 Classifications of monitoring stations

                             An overview of the relative air quality situation in the different cities/towns of the country is                              presented in Table 5.2.

Table 5.2 Ambient air quality status of various cities/towns