The Regional Resource Centre for Asia and the Pacific at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT RRC.AP), in collaboration with the South Asia Co-operative Environment Programme (SACEP), organized the 5th Webinar in the Malé Declaration Webinar Series on 27 July 2026 under the topic “Ambient Air Monitoring and Data Quality (Issues?) in South Asia.”
A total of 53 participants (30 male and 23 female) joined the webinar, representing academia, government agencies, international organizations, and the private sector. Participants were mainly from South and Southeast Asia, with additional participation from France, Somalia, Qatar, and the Federated States of Micronesia.
Dr. Vanisa Surapipith, Head of the Air Pollution Cluster, AIT RRC.AP, welcomed participants and briefly introduced the Malé Declaration as a regional framework for addressing air pollution and its transboundary effects in South Asia. She highlighted that the webinar aimed to discuss the existing ambient air quality monitoring networks and data quality issues in the region, while supporting ongoing efforts to revitalize the Malé Declaration and strengthen regional cooperation.
Mr. Ashish Tiwari, International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), Nepal, highlighted that air pollution in the Indo-Gangetic Plains and Himalayan Foothills (IGP-HF) crosses administrative and national boundaries and therefore requires an airshed-based approach. He stressed the need for a long-term focused strategy, robust national planning, evidence-based policies and implementation, supported by bottom-up emission inventories, source apportionment, improved monitoring, decision-support tools, financing, and regional cooperation.
Prof. Muhammad Fahim Khokhar, National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Islamabad, Pakistan, highlighted severe particulate pollution and recurring winter smog, together with gaps in monitoring networks, data availability, institutional capacity, financing, and coordination. He proposed a hybrid monitoring network combining low-cost sensors with reference monitors and stressed the need to strengthen the broken linkages between policymakers, regulators, research institutions, and academia so that policies are supported by scientific evidence.
Prof. Biswas Karabi Farhana, North South University, Bangladesh, presented the status of air quality monitoring in Bangladesh and explained how monitoring data can be translated into policies and used for research. She highlighted the need to improve monitoring coverage and data quality, integrate ground-based and satellite observations, strengthen technical capacity, and promote joint research, data sharing, forecasting, and regional cooperation.
The Q&A session covered several practical questions related to air quality management in the region:
Mr. Jatinder S. Kamyotra, Regional Facilitator of the Malé Declaration and former Director of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), India, emphasized that air quality data across the region need the same reliability and acceptability to support meaningful comparison and regional policy development. He called for uniform protocols, stronger institutional capacity, and better integration of different monitoring approaches, and highlighted the role of the revitalized Malé Declaration in strengthening regional cooperation towards clean environment and clean air for all with better health.
