Cali is a pioneer

Cali is a national pioneer along with Medellín in the Air Quality Surveillance System. The city was part of the first Air Quality monitoring that was carried out in the country in 1967 by the Ministry of Health through the Pan American Health Organization - PAHO, as part of the project Red Pan American for Standardized Sampling of Air Pollution. Air - REDPANAIRE that mediates in another 13 countries.

Of a total of 88 manual stations that measured air quality between 1971 and 1979, 25 were located in Colombia, and of those, 4 were in Cali. The results of these measurements led to the creation of various regulations in the country for air quality measurement, which were finally consolidated with the creation of the National Environmental System (SINA), Law 99 of 1993, which dictated the functions to be carried out by the Regional Autonomous Corporations and the Environmental Authorities within large urban centers, and Resolutions 610, 650, 651, and 760 of 2010, which regulate the limits of the states of prevention, alert, and emergency, dictate sanitary measures, and adopt the Air Quality Monitoring and Tracking Protocol, the Air Quality Information Subsystem (SISAIRE), and the protocol for the control and surveillance of air pollution generated by stationary sources, respectively.

In 1998, the municipality contracted, according to IDEAM's report, with the firm Sociedad Anónima de Instalaciones de Control - SAINCO of Madrid - Spain, represented in Colombia by the firm Equipo y Controles Industriales SA in Bogotá, the development, installation and operation of the system of air quality management in Santiago de Cali and with the results of a study contracted by the DAGMA with the National University and with the advice of the Universidad del Valle, the 9 points of the city where the stations should be were defined, However, it was only 11 years after the stations were acquired that the Cali Air Quality Surveillance System began to operate, releasing its first monthly measurement report in February 2010 to the present. We consulted the DAGMA about the reasons why the stations were inactive that time, however until the date of publication of this special we did not get a response.

Currently in Colombia there are 21 environmental authorities that have an Air Quality Surveillance System, among the stations of the main cities are the Metropolitan Area of the Aburrá Valley - AMVA with 27 stations, the Regional Autonomous Corporation of the Center of Antioquia - CORANTIOQUIA with 19 stations, the Cundinamarca Regional Autonomous Corporation - CAR with 16 stations and the Administrative Department of Environmental Management - DAGMA with 9 stations.

In Valle del Cauca, the CVC currently has only 2 active stations in the entire department located in Acopi - Yumbo and in the Buenaventura Regional Port SocietyHowever, up to the date of this special on the page of the Information System on Air Quality - SISAIRE (sisaire.gov.co), three more stations have been registered, one in Yumbo, one in Palmira and another in Buenaventura, which were out of service from 2011 to February 2014 and are currently suspended.