Today in Gevgelija, the new monitoring station for air quality was put into operation, which increased the number of official monitoring stations in the country to 18 and one additional, mobile measuring station.
“This means enriching the national network for automatic monitoring of air quality, which in fact achieves our strategic goals and priorities as the Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning and as the Government of the Republic of Northern Macedonia. Namely, the fight for improving the air quality within the envisaged short-term and long-term activities implies maintaining in good condition the State automatic system for ambient air quality, but also increasing the number of measuring stations”, said the Minister of Environment Naser Nuredini in the welcome speech, emphasizing the importance of the database that enables analysis and forecasting of trends, as well as planning the development of space and activities in the environment, focusing on the health and the well-being of the citizens.
“As a minister who has the responsibility to coordinate the implementation of the IPA cross-border cooperation program, I would like to call on other municipalities, institutions and organizations to prepare projects that will be really helpful for the citizens. “We are mobilizing in the next programming period to even better direct the financial support from the pre-accession funds of the European Union”, said the Minister of Local Self-Government Goran Milevski.
Expressing satisfaction that another project from the IPA-2 Program for cross-border cooperation with the Republic of Greece is successfully implemented in the Municipality of Gevgelija, the mayor of Gevgelija Sasho Potskov emphasized that the biggest works of capital projects that contribute to the ecologically sustainable development of the municipality such as the treatment plant, temporary dumpsite for municipal waste, the new water supply system due to the presence of arsenic in water in the old one, sewage and stormwater systems in the city and in several settlements are realized with grants and as part of EU cross-border cooperation programs.
Mentioning that the realization of this project is part of the joint efforts to fight pollution, in his speech EU Ambassador David Geer mentioned the European Union’s commitment to reducing air pollution and addressing climate change, the promotion of renewable energies and a healthy lifestyle was already announced last week in the Economic Investment Package for the Western Balkans, of which our country is an integral part.
The monitoring station was procured through the project “Transboundary Air Pollution Health Index” within the IPA2 program, cross-border cooperation between the Republic of North Macedonia and the Republic of Greece for the period 2014-2020. Apart from the Ministry, as partners directly involved in the project implementation of the project activities are the Center for Climate Changes Gevgelija and three partners from the Republic of Greece (Environmental Centre of Western Macedonia, Municipality of Florina and European Regional Framework for Cooperation).
For the realization of this project, the European Union through the IPA Cross-border Cooperation Program financed the project in a total value of almost one million euros for both countries, and the national co-financing in the amount of 15 percent was provided by the Ministry of Local Self-Government.
In addition to the procurement of the monitoring station, a number of other activities are being implemented within the project. Namely, within this program, a complete replacement of all instruments was made in the measuring station Bitola 1, and instruments for measuring PM 2.5 particles were procured, for the measuring station Bitola 1 and this one in Gevgelija. Also, two automatic standard/reference low volume samplers for measuring suspended particles (PM10 and PM 2.5) were procured and placed near the measuring stations Bitola 1 and Gevgelija. Additionally, the project will assess the impact of air quality on human health in the cross-border region, will develop a health index, will strengthen cross-border cooperation by organizing thematic training, will prepare and implement more activities to raise public awareness of citizens.
The planned activities of the project are fully expected to be completed by August 2021.
