By Dr. Jose Ali F. Bedaño
SOTECH has been recently identified as the lead institution in a study on emissions inventory (EI) in Iloilo City. The study primarily aims to lay a ground level status for estimating pollutant emissions in Iloilo City and in its air shed. It covers three major sources of pollutant emissions – stationary, area and mobile.
The project is part of the Clean Air for Smaller Cities program funded by the GIZ. GIZ is the new German development agency resulting from the merger of the German Development Service (GDS) and GTZ. Clean Air Initiative (CAI-Asia), a Manila-based NGO headed by Ms. Sophie Punte, implements the project in the Philippines in only 2 pilot sites – Iloilo City and Cagayan de Oro. Other Asian countries taking part in the program include Nepal, Vietnam and Indonesia.
The Iloilo City project is collaboratively implemented by three local universities – UPV, CPU and USA – with the assistance of the Iloilo City Environment Office (CENRO) under Engr. Noel Hechanova. Dr. Jose Ali Bedaño coordinates the activities of these institutions. SOTECH handles the EI for stationary sources, while CPU and USA conducts the EI from mobile sources and area sources, respectively. Dr. Doris Montecastro (Ateneo de Manila) and Dr. Manny Bionat (De La Salle University) serve as project consultants. A distinctive feature of the study is the wide involvement of engineering students from the participating schools in data gathering, encoding and analysis.
The project is expected to end by December 2011. Project outputs are expected to provide baseline information useful to the evolvement of development policies, plans and guidelines for Iloilo City. ■
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