37 days of clean air in the year, Hanoi is more polluted than Jakarta

Recent reports show that the level in Hanoi is close to China's Beijing capital when the whole year has just over a month people enjoy fresh air.

Reuters led the report of the Center for Green Creative Development (GreenID), for the average year in Hanoi in 2017 was 4 times higher than the acceptable level according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

According to the non-profit organization GreenID (based in Hanoi), the situation may get worse.

"The number of days with good air quality is just a little more than a month , " said Lars Blume, technical consultant for GreenID. Mr. Blume is an analyst of air monitoring data collected at the US Embassy in Hanoi.

Hanoi is covered by thick smog in March 2016.(Photo: Channel NewsAsia).

"This is beyond the control of people; they have to go out, work and in many cases really hard to feel good or bad air , " the expert told Reuters.

According to Blume, air pollution in Hanoi comes from many different causes, including an increase in the number of construction sites, increased use of motorcycles and automobiles, and farmers' copper burning habits.

However, the study in this report indicates heavy industries such as steel production, cement, coal-fired thermal power plants located near the capital are also important factors contributing to air pollution.

Currently, air quality in Hanoi is worse than Indonesia's capital Jakarta. The report concluded that the situation is unlikely to improve if Vietnam continues to push for plans to build more coal-fired power plants.

The GreenID report also criticized the lack of regulations on air quality issues, people's ignorance of problems and effective measures to minimize impacts, such as using filters. indoor air.