Emission testing companies ensure Sri Lanka’s air quality is pure
CleanCo Lanka Ltd, a subsidiary of Akbar Brothers operating under the brand ‘DriveGreen’, - one of the two companies that provide emission testing, last week announced the advantages of emission testing.
Rajeev De Alwis, Director/GM, CleanCo Lanka - on the sidelines of the press briefing, asked about the fraudulent activities said to be perpetrated by the emission test providers, said that this kind of issues is possible in a country like Sri Lanka but vouched that his company is clean.
Any motorist who has encoun- tered such a problem should report the matter to him and immediate action would be taken against the offender. He said that these fraudulent activities, if any would, now end as the Motor Traffic Department has new equipment to carry out random road checks to check vehicles and the emission levels.
If vehicles are detected with excessive emission levels even after being certified by a company, the certifying company would be penalized.
At this press briefing a demonstration was conducted to illustrate how vehicle emission testing can benefit motorists, the environment and the society at large.
Mr De Alwis said that prior to 2008, due to degradation of air quality resulting in the declining of health of the public the government decided to commence vehicle emission testing because this was a major contributor in addition to factories and industrial activities in emitting poisonous gases into the air.
The test demonstration performed on a three-wheeler showed that the performance of the vehicle which ran 18 km per litre of fuel improved to 28 km per litre after the test and adjustments made accordingly like replacing the air-filter that was de- fective. He said that the on-going tests by SGS Lanka, a subsidiary of Société Générale de Surveillance, France show that ambient air quality measured during peak traffic hours in four major Sri Lankan cities – Colombo, Kandy, Kurunegala and Maharagama - has not deteriorated during the 12- month period to December 2012, despite a steady increase in vehicle population. These findings are all the more significant, measured against an increase of 900,000 in the vehicle population since 2010. He said that the tests revealed overall concentration of pollutants had not increased over the period. He said that harmful emissions from vehicles increase respiratory problems, especially among the young. Increased concentration of particulate matter in city areas directly increase the incidence of respiratory diseases such as asthma, coughing, lung and throat irritation, etc. Further, he said that many noxious and poisonous gases emitted by automobiles have a negative impact on the environment and as vehicle numbers in the country grow, so does the quantity of emitted gases, making the environment less fit for living.