On September 7th, 2020, the Environmental Protection Agency published the Annual Report on the State of Air Quality in the Republic of Serbia in 2019, which contains an overview of the results of air quality monitoring at the national and local level. An integral part of this report is the assessment of air quality by zones and agglomerations, according to which in all agglomerations in the Republic of Serbia during 2019, excessive air pollution was recorded, and the air was assessed as category III air.

Assessment of air quality by zones and agglomerations

In 2019, the air in all agglomerations (Belgrade, Novi Sad, Nis, Bor, Uzice, Kosjeric, Smederevo, and Pancevo) was excessively polluted because the limit values ​​for one or more pollutants were exceeded. In all of these agglomerations, the air was excessively polluted due to the high concentration of PM10 and (or) PM 2.5 particles, except for Bor, which is classified in cities in the highest category of pollution due to excessive concentration of sulfur dioxide (SO2).

The results of air quality monitoring incorporated by the Environmental Protection Agency are the basis for the adoption of the Regulation on determining the list of air quality categories by zones and agglomerations on the territory of the Republic of Serbia, adopted by the Government of the Republic of Serbia once a year for the previous calendar year. However, the Government of the Republic of Serbia only in June 2020 passed the said Regulation for 2018. The Regulation for 2019 has not been passed yet.

Belgrade

The problem of air pollution is a long-standing problem for the City of Belgrade. Thus, according to the data of the Environmental Protection Agency, the measuring station in New Belgrade recorded as many as 169 days in which the daily limit values ​​of PM 10 particles in the air were exceeded during 2019, and at four other measuring stations a large number of days with exceeding daily limit values was recorded. Unlike most agglomerations that are classified in the III category of air quality, Belgrade has developed an Air Quality Plan which is being implemented for the period from 2016 to 2020. However, the presented data shows that this plan was not consistently implemented and that control over the implementation of the plan was lacking.

 Interestingly, the report states that in addition to the data of the Environmental Protection Agency, the data of the City Institute for Public Health Belgrade were used in assessing the air quality for 2019 and that the results of automatic monitoring from the local network of Belgrade were not submitted to the Agency.

Bor

Data on air quality in Bor are particularly worrying, since in this city the concentration of sulfur dioxide dangerous to human health was recorded 13 times during 2019, as well as that the target value of the concentration of heavy metals (arsenic and cadmium) was exceeded where the concentration of arsenic at one station was almost 100 times higher than the target value.

Smederevo

In the case of Smederevo, there is an obvious increase in air pollution caused by the operation of the HBIS Iron and Steel Plant Smederevo. The measuring station "Radinac", which belongs to the network of the Environmental Protection Agency and is located near the plant, was put into operation again at the end of last year. The only measurement data at this station cover a 15-day period from 12/28/2019. to 11.01.2020. These results showed very high concentrations of suspended particles in the air, which shows a direct relationship between the plant operation and pollution. However, there was no new data after this period, and this station was not mentioned in the Agency's Report. In Smederevo, there are 2 more stations within the state network, whose data have unequivocally shown that the air in this city is excessively polluted.

Does this data provide a true picture of air quality?

What is obvious is that in most stations where the air is rated as clean, the concentration of suspended particles is not measured. Among the stations classified in the first category (where the air was rated as clean) the concentration of PM10 particles was not measured at 12, while the concentration of PM2.5 particles was not measured at 17 stations. These data show that it is necessary to further improve the monitoring in the state network so that the measuring stations provide data on the concentrations of all pollutants. In addition, the number of local institutes contributing to the Agency's Report also put on the agenda the issue of improving local monitoring which local self-government units must do in cooperation with local public health institutes. The Institute for Public Health of Serbia "Milan Jovanović Batut" in its annual analysis named "Urban air pollution in the territory of the Republic of Serbia measured in the network of public health institutions in 2019", states, among other things, that "the trend of low monitoring continues particulate pollution with PM10 and PM2.5 particles ”.

Concluding remarks

Data from the Environmental Protection Agency indicate that the competent authorities have not taken significant or at least appropriate measures aimed at reducing air pollution, and that systemic solutions have been lacking. It is evident that in cities where excessive pollution is caused by industry, the competent authorities do not use all the authorities entrusted to them by law in order to avoid, prevent or reduce harmful effects on human health and / or the environment as a whole.

Air quality assessment, provided by the Environmental Protection Agency, is a starting document in further development of legal acts and public policies in the field of air protection since the Law on Air Protection prescribes that in agglomerations where the air is category III air quality plans must be adopted which, among other things, prescribes measures that public authorities will be obliged to implement in order to reduce pollution. Also, the Ministry of Environmental Protection was obliged to prepare, and Serbian Government to adopt the Air Protection Strategy in the Republic of Serbia, as an umbrella document based on which air quality plans are adopted, no later than January 1, 2015. However, the Air Protection Strategy has not been adopted to date.

The results of air quality monitoring confirm that in this area, as well as in other areas of environmental protection, greater investments are needed, as well as coordination of institutions responsible for implementing air quality protection measures and compliance of their work with legal regulations.

The analysis of the Report on the state of air quality in the Republic of Serbia for 2019 was conducted by:

• Regulatory Institute for Renewable Energy and the Environment
• Belgrade Open School

Photo source: Belgrad Open School