Due to a critical episode of contamination, the first environmental pre-emergency of the year began to take effect this Saturday in Santiago de Chilea measure decreed by the authorities that includes vehicle restrictions and the stoppage of work that is harmful to the air quality for 24 hours.
The Presidential Delegation of the Metropolitan Region, which declared a pre-emergency due to the poor ventilation conditions in the capital, received a recommendation from the Regional Ministerial Secretariat for the Environment with the aim of safeguarding the health of the population.
According to projections from the same authorities, the concentrations of particulate matter in Santiago would increase during the weekend, configuring a “critical episode” of contamination.
Agricultural burning within the Metropolitan region was paralyzed, as were stationary sources that do not meet annual environmental goals, including steel, fertilizer, cement, food processing, and manufacturing companies.
This stoppage will be supervised directly by the Superintendence of the Environment.
Although it is the first environmental pre-emergency in the Chilean capital so far in 2023, there have already been air quality crises in previous months: in early May, the authorities issued alerts for consecutive days due to lack of ventilation.
Santiago is the capital and most polluted city in South America, followed by Lima, Mexico City, Guatemala City, Bogotá and Buenos Aires, according to the World Air Quality Report 2022.
In addition, Chile ranks second after Peru in poor air quality indices.
Source: EFE
Source: Gestion
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