The Malta Environment and Planning Authority (Mepa) said it expects a handsome delivery in the coming weeks - two brand new air monitoring stations worth over Lm 200,000, while another station is expected to be procured by the end of the year.

"The European Union is contributing to a significant share of the capital cost for the purchasing of these stations. These two stations will upgrade the present air monitoring network allowing more and better data to be collected.

This will allow real time presentation of information to the public," said Louis Vella, the Mepa project leader. According to the latest State of the Environment Report released by Mepa in January, air pollution remains high in certain urban areas and can be hazardous to human health. A national air monitoring programme is necessary to provide data for decision makers to be used in plans and programmes to improve the air quality situation in the Maltese Islands.

Two stations are being co-funded from the EU's European Regional Development Fund, while another station, as well as a training project implemented jointly with the G.I.P. France Coopération Internationale is being financed by the EU Transitional Facility programme.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.