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The
responsibility of controlling certain types pollution
in many European countries is given to the local municipalities. Often, the air
quality problem is not confined to within their borders. Major road networks
connect cities and regions within a country or between countries producing corridors
of poor air quality. Major industrial areas send their emissions high into the
atmosphere which can travel very long distances, eg. pollution
from the UK and central Europe used to fall as acid rain in Scandinavia.
Just as international organisations are set up to help control cross
border pollution so local and national organisations can aid in controlling
more local pollution.
Co-operation
is needed both between neighbouring municipalities and between municipalities
of a similar size to enable a common approach to the problem of air pollution.
This may take place at different levels and with varying complexity. National
organisations are often best at organising conferences and seminars to
disseminate information to a large part of a country or for instance to large
cities.
At the
more local level, a single municipality may wish to organise similar events in
its region or sub region.
While
monitoring and assessing pollution in a region it is often necessary to share
information with neighbours in order to determine the proportion of pollution
which is created locally and that which is imported from the neighbouring
areas. It is sometimes necessary to organise formal agreements between
neighbouring authorities to enable this exchange of information to happen.
It may
also be that case that information on transport is collected at a regional
level but is required by the cities for air quality assessment. Unless there is
a formal agreement or statutory requirement to provide this information to the
local authorities or cities, this information is often difficult to obtain.
Co-operation
between municipalities in a region should be led from the top. Politicians and
senior managers may prevent this at a high level to benefit some other
political purpose. In this case it is often necessary for informal co-operation to occur at
a lower level between the officers directly involved in the air quality
assessment process. This unofficial co-operation may sometimes be more
successful than any higher formal agreement.
The
advantage of larger co-operative groups of air quality proffessionals means
that they can have a louder voice and greater power when communicating with the
national government.
Sharing
information and experiences can save time and money as lessons can be learnt
from each other to avoid making the same mistake twice. |