September 27, 2019, by Vietnam Weekly
In general, Hanoi's air quality is much worse than Saigon's, so people here were surprised last Friday when the city was shrouded in a dense haze. That carried on through the weekend, and while the skies have been a bit bluer during the week, as I write this the AQI is 146, just below the 'Unhealthy' level. A few days ago the city was in the 180-200 range, which is quite rare.
On Monday, Tuoi Tre reported on the topic, blaming high humidity from frequent rain and dust particles for the smog. The same outlet ran a story on Tuesday in which an expert cited the ongoing immense forest fires in Indonesia as one of the causes, a possibility which had been raised on social media over the weekend.
Meanwhile, amid the visibly horrid air, the city's Department of Natural Resources and Environment was on top of things, advising residents on how to handle the smog. Just kidding! "Tuoi Tre contacted an official from the department for an inquiry on the issue on Monday and was told that there were not enough grounds to make a conclusion."
Then, on Wednesday, VnExpress reported that the Saigon General Hospital was seeing 5-10% more patients with respiratory ailments than normal. Other hospitals around the city confirmed similar situations.
Finally, on Thursday, Tuoi Tre shared that the natural resources department had weighed in, ruling out the Indonesia forest fires as a contributing factor and mostly blaming the haze on weather conditions, though at least they acknowledged this was worse than usual. Hopefully this clears out soon, but the same can't be said for Hanoi, where air quality has been among the worst in the world for the last week.
Đăng nhận xét