Clean Air Asia and the local government of Manila City reaffirmed their commitment in strengthening localized air quality monitoring and management initiatives during the 2nd quarterly meeting of Task Force Hinga Maynila in June 2023.
The Manila City government acknowledged that there is a need to increase inter-agency collaboration on air quality monitoring and management. Further, the implementation of Clean Air Action Plan (CAAP) measures on fleet management, electric vehicle adoption, improving indoor air quality in hospitals, as well as the integration of the Manila CAAP and database with the city planning were discussed, which will reinforce the city’s existing efforts in ensuring that its citizens breathe clean and healthy air.
“Air quality monitoring is one of the priority projects of our Manila City Mayor Honey Lacuña under the program ‘Magnificent Manila’,” said Ms. Annabelle Clemencia P. Rebong from the Manila City Department of Public Services (DPS).
Manila City activities on urban biodiversity
The city is composed of 100 Zones and 896 barangays, with a total population of 1.8 million as of 2020.
One of the local government’s main programs on air quality management under its Ecosystem Cluster “ASENSO” Urban Governance Framework, was the signing of a memorandum of agreement in 2019 with Clean Air Asia and 3M Philippines for the local implementation of the CAAP under the Asia Blue Skies program, with Barangay 128 as its pilot community.
It also initiated the installation of air quality monitoring sensors at the Freedom Triangle, Rizal Park, Mendiola, Barangay 493, and Barangay 128; and signed a memorandum of agreement with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources for the air quality monitoring station in 2020.
Year 3 milestones
The quarterly meeting discussed the milestones reached during the third year of implementation of the Asia Blue Skies program including the implementation of the Manila CAAP transport measures, community based CAAP measures, air quality communication activities, and the continued updating of Manila City’s knowledge base.
Around 38 participants from the Task Force Hinga Maynila, City Council Committee on Transportation, and the University of the Philippines Resilience Institute attended the meeting.