TEHRAN — The deputy chief of Iran's Department of Environment held the disorganized and irregular expansion of urban areas to be guilty of the current persisting air pollution.

The underlying cause of the current air pollution is that the number of city dwellers has exceeded the carrying capacity of the capital, Sa’eed Motesaddi told the ISNA news agency.

The municipality is making profit by giving out permission for construction, this is a horrible mistake which needs to be rectified in no time, Motesaddi cautioned.

He voiced concerns over the carrying capacity of Tehran, noting that the population size of an area must be environmentally sustainable.

He additionally mentioned the violations happening in the periodic motor vehicle inspections and called on a unanimous system to minimize the possibility of any fraudulent conduct.

******* President should supervise responsible organizations

Meanwhile, the chief of the health committee of the Tehran City Council urged President Hassan Rouhani to take direct action against air pollution.

Rahmatollah Hafezi told the ISNA news agency that the president should supervise all the organizations which hold responsible for the air pollution and check up on their progress every fortnight.

He further explained that despite the effective measures taken to enhance the quality of the gasoline for the past two years the air pollution does still exist.

“The problem lies in the fact that officials take decisions regardless of the public health,” he stated. “Should the decision makers take public health into consideration, the problem would be solved gradually.”

He said that a lack of unanimity among organizations accounts for the problem as well.


******* Confiscating number plates

Brigadier General Taghi Mehri, the traffic police chief, announced that the number plates of the smoking vehicles will be confiscated and the cars will be towed to the auto repair services.

According to the IRNA news agency, Mehri noted that the practice of number plates’ confiscation will be conducted even harsher as the air pollution has increased for the past week.

******* 60,000 clunkers nationwide

There are 60,000 clunkers nationwide which is a considerable number, Mehri said adding that, all the minibuses in Tehran and 17,000 taxis in the country are old.

There are also more than seven million carburetor-engine cars which play a key role in the escalating air pollution, he said, regretting that all the motorcycles are carburetor-engine too.

******* Blaming each other

The City Council and the Department of Environment are keeping on passing the bucket at each other while it’s been 19 days the capital residents are gulping in the foul air.

The Department of Environment believes that the Euro-4 gasoline proved to be effective in controlling the air quality index while the parliament disagrees and claim the opposite.

The parliament declares the Department of Environment guilty while they have decided to increase the number of the years for periodic motor vehicle inspection from two years to five years whereas the old cars are the major culprit for the air pollution.

Meanwhile, the typical intervals for periodic inspections are every two years and every year worldwide, while in Iran the cars undergo the first inspection after five years.

Councilors announce figures which reveal an increase in the number of the deaths for the past weeks while some others call it an electoral fraud.

The fights are ongoing and God knows when the wind or the snowfall will end this misery.

MQ