The Hamriyah Free Zone Authority (HFZA) in Sharjah has completed the installation of continuous and portable ambient air quality monitoring stations in its premises.

With modern high-tech devices, the monitoring stations are on par with the international and UAE Federal Environmental Standards.

While inspecting the newly installed stations, Saud Salim Al Mazrouei, the director of HFZA and Sharjah Airport International Free Zone (Saif Zone) said that the devices will help to monitor the levels of air pollution at all times and mentioned plans to install more stations at different sites in Phase Two.

He was accompanied by Ahmed bin Hadda Al Suwaidi, the director of administrative affairs and Ali Saeed Al Jarwan, the deputy commercial director, on the tour to the stations in the free zone.

“The system assesses the extent of pollution, evaluates the authority’s control options and provides data for air quality modelling.  Our  team keeps a close watch on air quality and  the priority monitoring is focused on the industrial  areas,” stated Al Mazrouei.

“We have established high performance standards for environment, health and safety (EHS) in the free zone as a step towards our objectives and our social environmental responsibility,” he added.

According to him, the ambient air quality monitoring is aimed at determining the daily trend of air pollutants and to assess the free zone’s compliance with the air quality standards.

"Apart from heightened awareness of the importance of EHS across our operations, the new air quality monitoring system - to be managed by the environmental protection department of the free zone - will also help in identifying and managing risk or breach of norms by companies operating in the free zone," said Al Mazrouei.-TradeArabia News Service