Last March, at the beginning of the partial lockdown, Newspoint had spoken to , a lecturer in Environmental Management and Planning at the Institute of Earth Systems, about . Dr Scerri had understandably said it was too early to tell, as only a few days had passed from the start of the current situation.
Two months on, Dr Scerri confirmed to Newspoint that the COVID-19 related measures imposed in Malta did indeed leave an impact on pollution levels in Malta – citing a decrease, by a 30% average, in the concentration of nitrogen dioxide.
The nitrogen dioxide data was obtained from is measurement data gathered from monitoring stations across the island.
Dr Scerri gathered data between 19 February and 19 April 2020, and compared that to the corresponding months of 2018. The data for 2019, he said, had not been verified as yet.
The Msida monitoring station, for example, measured an average of 29.4 μg/m3 (micrograms per meter cubed) in nitrogen dioxide in pre-partial-lockdown times, and just 17.5 μg/m3 after the partial lockdown started.
The Għarb station, which is not situated in an urban zone and which is thus not influenced directly by traffic due to its rural set-up, did not register this significant decrease.
The fact that traffic is the biggest and most significant source of air pollution is not news, he said. It’s something that has long been stated in reports and studies conducted nationally and overseas.
Dr Scerri also noted that nitrogen dioxide concentrations are normally high in those areas exposed to heavy traffic flows e.g. St Anne’s Street in Floriana, Triq Dicembru 13 in Marsa, and improving the situation in these and in similar hot-spots would require radical changes.
