As the implementation of the Malé Declaration has
progressed a lot, greater involvement of the participating countries is
required. Moreover, establishing centers at regional and national levels
is necessary to sustain the capability building in the region and at
the national level. The First Meeting of the Task Force on Future
Development (TFFD) of the Malé Declaration on Control and Prevention of
Air Pollution and Its Likely Transboundary Effects for South Asia (Malé
Declaration) held on 2-3 August 2010 at Pathumthani, Thailand, agreed on
the framework and outline of the feasibility report on the
establishment of regional centres.
During the Second Meeting of the TFFD which was held on 29-30
November 2010 in Colombo, Sri Lanka, the draft feasibility report on the
regional centres was discussed and potential regional centres were
identified. The Objectives of the Regional Centre:
- The purpose of a regional centre is to advise on any technical problem faced by a country and
provide guidance on the smooth operation of Malé Declaration activities
and how to maintain high quality data provision. It will also offer
training courses to update and enhance the knowledge and capacity in the
field.
- The basic function of a regional centre is to
exchange knowledge and to support the research and development on air
pollution issues in the region on the proposed theme namely: a) dry and
wet deposition monitoring; b) soil monitoring c) vegetation monitoring;
d) corrosion impact assessment; e) health impact assessment; e) emission
inventory compilation f) atmospheric transport modeling; and g)
pollution reduction policies/strategies.
Accordingly, the IG12 adopted and agreed on the location of regional centers as follows:
a. Regional Centre on Wet and Dry Deposition Monitoring - India
b. Regional Centre on Crops and Vegetation Monitoring - Pakistan
c. Regional Centre on Soil Monitoring - Bhutan
d. Regional Centre on Corrosion Impact Assessment - India
e. Regional Centre on Health Impact Assessment - Bangladesh
f. Regional Centre on Emission Inventories – Sri Lanka
g. Regional Centre on Modelling Atmospheric Transport of Air Pollution - Iran
h. Regional Centre on Pollution Reduction Policies/Strategies –Nepal / Maldives
Guildelines for the Operation of the Regional Centres...
