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Cleaning the Air

Supat Wangwongwatana, Chair of the Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities, says the region’s megacities need comprehensive and integrated programs to improve air quality

By David Kruger (dkruger@adb.org)
External Relations Specialist

Air pollution kills almost half a million Asians every year. As the region’s cities continue to expand and vehicles proliferate, the need for action to improve air quality grows each day. Effective technology to control air pollution is available and in use throughout Europe and North America. It is time for Asians to realize that air pollution is a serious problem; it affects the livelihoods of millions of people and controlling it will require everyone to act. Supat Wangwongwatana chairs the Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities, a group formed by the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank that seeks to improve the quality of the air all Asians breathe. He spoke with David Kruger. Excerpts:

Q: Why is the air quality in so many Asian cities so bad?

A: It’s because of urbanization and the growth of the population and the vehicle population in the cities. That is the major source of air pollution in the city—millions of vehicles every day emitting a huge amount of pollutants into the air. That seriously damages the quality of air.

Q: What types of health problems and financial costs are associated with bad air?

A: Huge, huge amounts of money. We have done some studies in Bangkok on health effects, and we found that we have to pay a lot of money to cure people who get sick because of air pollution. And there are a lot of premature deaths in the city. You might imagine that if those people lived longer, they could contribute more to society. But they have a shorter life because of air pollution, and every year the country will have to pay a lot of money for medical care given to sick people because of air pollution. Many people are affected by air pollution in their respiratory system or through cardiovascular disease. We expect to see more people having asthma attacks in the city and also allergies to air pollution. One of the common problems that we found in cities in Asia is particulate matter. We used to have problems with blood lead levels. Lately, because of the phasing out of leaded gasoline in Asia, we have found a reduction in blood lead levels. That really provides a lot of health benefits. But today we are still facing a particulate problem.

Q: Is air quality getting better or worse in Asia?

A: Some cities have better air quality today. For example, in Bangkok we have better air quality today than 10 years ago. The lead level in the ambient air is now reduced by more than 95%, and this is also happening in other cities in Asia as they start to phase out leaded gasoline. We have also reduced carbon monoxide, which comes mainly from gasoline engines, by having catalytic converters installed in vehicles. This is going to happen in other cities in Asia also because they are starting to have vehicles using catalytic converters. But some cities might have worse air pollution in the near future because they are developing rapidly, especially Hanoi or cities in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic or Cambodia. They are developing, and there are more and more vehicles on the streets in cities. They will face problems in the future if they do not plan well now.

Q: But as you mentioned, the experience in Bangkok shows it’s possible to reduce pollution even as more and more cars come onto the road, if the right measures are taken.

A: Yes, that’s true. The number of vehicles in Bangkok keeps increasing but we see an opposite trend in air pollution indicators because of the measures that have been implemented. But it will come to a point where if the number of cars keeps on increasing, the pollution will come back again. So it’s not only making the fuel clean or the vehicle clean, but you also have to try to limit the number of vehicles in the city, and that will be achieved by promoting the use of mass rapid transit systems.

Q: Aside from phasing out leaded gas and introducing mass transit, what do governments need to do to improve air quality?

A: You need a comprehensive and integrated plan to achieve better air quality. You cannot achieve better air quality with only one measure. You have to have cleaner fuel, not only unleaded gasoline. You have to clean up both gasoline and diesel fuel. You have to reduce sulfur in diesel fuel. You have to reduce benzine and aromatic content in gasoline. You also have to have new vehicles. You have to make sure that new vehicles coming onto the streets emit less and less pollutants. You have to control the emissions from in-use vehicles because once they are on the road and used daily, they will become a polluting source. This can be controlled by an inspection and maintenance program. You have to have good traffic flow, and traffic management to reduce congestion. When you have really congested traffic, cars will emit the most pollutants. So if you have good traffic flow in the city, you have lower emissions. You also need fewer vehicles on the road. This is a kind of comprehensive and integrated plan and you need to do these things in parallel. You cannot do one and expect to achieve better air quality.

Q: What sort of benefits do you see from your efforts in Thailand?

A: Five years after we phased out leaded gasoline, we did a cost-benefit analysis, and we found that the benefit-to-cost ratio is about 35. It’s very high. If you are able to reduce air pollution, the benefit-to-cost ratio is very, very high. You will really get benefits from the improved air quality, although you may not see it in terms of money. You don’t get a financial return. But you get healthier people who can produce more. You have fewer sick people. You spend less on medical care.

Q: Given these benefits and the fact that no one wants to breathe bad air, what is holding back greater progress?

A: I think it is the lack of investment. To improve fuel quality, you need a lot of investment in the private sector. To produce better cars, you also need a lot of investment by the private sector. To reduce traffic, there will need to be investment from the government to implement the mass or public transport system. I think the constraint is investment. Most governments have other things to do, other things to fund to develop the country.

Q: How do you explain to people who are breathing bad air why oil and car companies aren’t selling the same quality products in Asia as in Europe or North America?

A: This is the question that I ask industry also. You can make cleaner cars and sell them in the US and Europe. Why can’t you make them for Thailand or the Philippines or Indonesia? They always say that if you want us to make cars as good as those sold in the US or Europe we can do it, but the cars will be more expensive for the people of Thailand, for the people of Indonesia. There is no problem for them to do that. It is just a matter that the fuel will be more expensive; the cars will be more expensive. It is up to each country to set up the legislation requiring them to improve quality.

Q: The Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities started 3 years ago. Are you happy with its progress so far?

A: I think this probably is the most successful initiative on air quality in the world. We have government members, we have private sector members, we have development agencies, members from cities. We have members from all stakeholders whom we involve in making the air in the region cleaner.

Q: What explains the success?

A: I think it’s because the level of polluted air in Asia is making people aware of the problem, aware of how serious it is, and making them aware of the fact that something needs to be done. There is a lot of pressure being put on government agencies in every country to improve the quality of air.

Q: In 5 years, will the air quality in Asian cities be better or worse than now?

A: It will be better. From what I see, most cities in Asia are now implementing some measures to lower emissions or have plans up to the year 2010 to implement measures. If they do that, I am quite confident it will bring down the level of air pollution in the region. But it will take time. It will not happen tomorrow; it will not happen next year. In the case of Thailand, we spent the last 10 years to get to where we are now. And we still have pollution problems in the city.

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