In 2009, I spent more than two-third time on working air quality management related tasks in Manila. I participated in reviewing the clean air policies in world mega events, analyzing air quality management structure in different Asian countries and air quality monitoring system in the Philippines and its air quality status. Through participating in the tasks, I was able to learn what challenges of implementing air quality management in Asian countries and what the effective and efficient strategies in improving the air quality in mega events. This knowledge and experience can certainly benefit for my future works.
Besides works, I had a great time in Manila through visiting the provinces and enjoying the Filipino cultures with my friends. I adventured the wonderful places in few small islands (Bohol in Cebu, Borocay in Aklan and Coron in Palawan). It is hard to describe all things in words. One of the ways to express my feelings is to describe the things I like most during the posting period. The movie below summarizes my tasks I participated in and activities in my spare time.
The most unforgettable activity is snorkeling with beautiful corals and colorful tropical fishes. The colorful fishes just swam around me. I were able to touch closely the coral and fishes and appreciated the grand ocean. I got the message from them “Human needs to save the nature and the earth from now on”.
The delicious food I like most is roast chicken. The chicken is very juicy with the secret gravy. I ate the roast chicken at least once a week.
The best daily exercise to keep fit is fetching around 25L volume of water from the basement to my unit. I kept doing it almost 3 weeks due to the water supply problem in the residential building.
I was amazed at the destructive power of a strong typhoon – Kestana. This typhoon brought huge amount of water. The rainfall on that day was higher than the monthly normal in the Port Area. It caused flooding, landfall, energy supply problem, lack of communication, death, infrastructure damages. This impact raises our concerns on climate change.
One memorable activity is every Friday night dinner. I went out with two colleagues almost every Friday to taste various kinds of food and share the challenges and happiness among each other.
Some participants may ask whether I encountered culture shock. Certainly, I did but it took 1-2 weeks to adjust myself to integrate in the society, adopt the local foods and make friend with the colleagues. My motto in overcoming the culture shocks is “Adjust new challenges and Act positive”. When I stayed in Manila during the first month, I tried a lot of new things and adjusted myself to adopt new environment. Keep doing it and you will have a company with colleagues, security guards and sales clerks.
Finally, I would like to thank Fredskorpset sponsored this exchange program and CAI-Asia center facilitated the program to provide an opportunity young professionals to gain and share the experiences. From the participant point of view, the first phase of this program was successful and benefit for me so much because I not only gained the knowledge by participating the projects, but also observed and learned from real life.
The Philippines celebrates Clean Air Month as part of the ongoing Clean Air 10 Celebrations, which was hold in June. More than 10 activities have been organized in October and November 2009 to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of Clean Air Act, which was signed into law on June 23, 1999, The aim of these activities is to emphasize the successful clean air actions taken in specific cities and to generalize some actions for governmental agencies, stakeholders and educational institutions to follow in the coming years.
A series of workshops and events are planned on air quality management and sustainable transport together with Department of Environment and Natural Resources(DENR), Department of Transport and Communication (DOTC), and key international partners including Asian Development Bank, Asian Clean Fuels Association (ACFA), German Technical Cooperation (GTZ), and the Partnership for Clean Fuels and Vehicles of the UN (PCFV).
During my positing period, I attended some of these events, namely Philippines National Workshop: Clean Air for Smaller Cities in the ASEAN Region Project, Forum on Greening the Transport Sector, National Workshop on Clean Fuels and Vehicles, Rondtable on Biofuels: Trends and Updates, Roundtable Forum on Clean Air 10 Celebrations. Through participating these activities, I was able to realize the difficulties of implementing the air quality management in the Philippine and the successful stories in improving air quality for the past 10 years. A brief description of each activity is listed as below. For further information about the clean air month activities, please visit http://www.cleanairnet.org/caiasia/1412/propertyvalue-13724.html
The first event was a workshop “Clean Air for Smaller Cities in the ASEAN Region Project Philippines National Workshop” on October 22, 2009 in The A. Venue Hotel Suites, Manila. The aims of this workshop are to share the western countries experiences in clean air projects and provide a platform for small cities to express their difficulties and needs in implementing clean air projects. On that day, more than 30 Philippine local government units participated in the workshop and two of them (Iloilo city and Cagayan de Oro City) shared their existing clean air programs to other cities. In addition, some experts from GTZ shared some successful clean air stories and addressed the elements of clean air plan to the Philippine government agencies.
On November 12, more than 200 audiences from LGUs, city planners, government officials, transport sector, private sector and academe and civil societyattended a forum named “Forum Greening the Transport Sector” in Heritage Hotel, Manila. This forum is organized by DOTC and DENR, together with CAI-Asia, UNCRD, PCA, LCP, IGES, and UP-NCTS. On that day, the National Environmentally Sustainable Transport (EST) Strategy and Action Plan of the Philippines to various stakeholders was presented and discussed. This EST strategy and action plan contribute towards mainstreaming such policies and contribute to our country’s efforts to achieve better urban transport systems that contribute to reducing air pollution, emissions of CO2, and dependence on fossil fuel. The additional information can be found at http://www.cleanairnet.org/caiasia/1412/article-73618.html
National Workshop on Clean Fuels and Vehicles was held on November 16 in Astoria Plaza Hotel, Manila. Around 100 participants attended the workshop. The objective of the workshop is to develop an action plan for cleaner fuels and vehicles in the Philippines with the aim of adopting Euro IV standards or specific parameters of Euro IV standards. Department of Energy of Philippines presented the overview of Philippine Fuel quality standard and Pollution Control Department of Thailand shared the experience in moving towards cleaner fuels and vehicles, followed by Hart Energy described the refinery capacity and supply in Asia of Euro IV or low-sulfur fuels and Philipinas Shell pointed out the impacts on refineries based on the relationship between fuel quality and vehicle emissions and moving to cleaner fuels. The additional information can be found at http://www.cleanairnet.org/caiasia/1412/article-73652.html
A roundtable on biofuels was held just a day after the National Workshop on Clean Fuels and Vehicles in Astoria Plaza Hotel, Manila. The objective is to provide Philippine stakeholders with updates on (a) the Philippine biofuels initiatives and (b) global and regional updates on biofuel use and how other countries are addressing vehicle performance and maintenance issues related to biofuel use. The key speakers included Department of Energy (DOE) and Asian Clean Fuels Association (ACFA). The overview of Philippine Biofuel situation and its initiatives was presented and the update on biofuel use and proposed solutions to address related vehicle performance and maintenance issues was also addressed.
Roundtable Forum on Clean Air 10 Celebrations, organized by DENR, PCA, ECAP, CAI-Asia and DILG, was held on November 18 in Sulo Hotel, Manila. More than hundred participants attended this forum. During this forum, I was able to learn the stories of “model cases” on how the various sectors of the Philippines achieved some modest gains in working for clean air.In addition, this forum presented the process with visions on what they want to achieve together in the next years and provided discussion spaces on how they could get there, through the COMMITMENT TO ACTION of the various sectors – working together to achieve their end goal of ensuring a healthy and sustainable environment for all.
On June 23, Clean Air 10 Celebration was held at Skyline Riverbend Hotel in Marikina, Metro Manila. The theme of this celebration is “Ligtas Hangin, Ligtas Klima” and the topic is "Conference on Empowering LGU's to clean the air and address climate change through partnerships". Clean Air 10 is organized by four governmental developments [Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC), Department of Education (DepEd), Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG)] and and Partnership for Clean Air (PCA). More than 250 participants from national government agencies, local government units (LGUs), non-governmental organization (NGOs) and academe, private sector, civil society and concerned individuals joined the celebration.
The aims of this celebration are to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Clean Air Act in the Philippines and overview the act implementation in the past ten years. Key presentations were firstly addressed in the morning. During the lunch time, PCA and CAI-Aisa center launched “Ligtas Hangin” campaign. “Ligtas Hangin” means save the air. There are at least three impressions from the logo (see below):
1. The air swirl forms a smile, because clean air means healthy air 2. The shape of the face can also represent a house (indoor air), the tailpipe of a vehicle (mobile sources), the silhouette of a factory (stationary sources), or the border between two territories (transboundary air pollution) 3. Air pollution is linked to climate change, so the swirl can also depict an approaching typhoon
For details, please http://ligtashangin.blogspot.com/
In the afternoon, all participants were separated into five discussion groups (Awareness raising and Networking, Capacity Building, Funding, Policy and Technologies). I took part in a policy discussion group and realized the national air quality status, the existing air quality action plans, and boundaries of these plans in the Philippines.
By the end of the day, one representative from each group presented the views. The ten-point actions (Clean Air 10) were finally summarized and the organization encouraged the governments, LGUs, NGOs, academe, private sectors to implement the actions to celebrate "the clean air" in 10th anniversary. This celebration will be continued in November.
During our preparatory course at Bangkok, my self and Linh had a plan to buy our own bicycles and travel to Polytechnic University and around Hong Kong. Well, when we arrived to Hong Kong, we realized that our plan is just a dream……………. with unsupported cycling infrastructure in urban area and “No cycling” sign boards. When we heard about the conference on “Hong Kong on the Bicycle” on 23rd May 2009, we were eager to be part of it.
This was organized jointly by the Fringe Club, The Conservancy Association, Designing Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Cycling Alliance, HKCI.net and the Hong Kong Mountain Bike Association at Fringe Theatre in Central. The event was sponsored by the Consulate-General of the Netherlands. Discussion was focus on should cycling be limited to sports and recreation, or should it be recognized as a legitimate form of Transport; is Hong Kong ready for commuting by bicycle; is it possible for vehicles, pedestrians and bicycles to share roads safely.
Prof. Hung Wing-tat, Director of the Conservancy Association chaired the conference. Civil Engineering and Development Department (CEDD) official made a presentation explaining Government plan on cycle track network in the New Territories to increase the recreational value. Transport Department representative share his view on recent trend of bicycle accidents in Hong Kong refereeing to accident statistics and their effort in promotion bicycling safety through education and publicity. Other Speakers pointed out that Hong Kong government sees cycling as a recreational activity, however consider difficult to deal as a regular transport mode. It was highlighted the policy environment and conflicts for cycling in Hong Kong. Lawren from Web master of Hong Kong Cyclist Information Net; made a presentation by giving the counter examples of the changing cycling mode in China and Taiwan, to forecast the changes of development of cycling in Hong Kong. It was also pointed out that Hong Kong has limited roads where cycling at speed can take place safely, if cycling is to be given a fair ride and given special recognition. It was further said that more education of drivers or cyclists are need as to how these roads can be safely shared. Andrew, member of Yuen Long District Youth Forum preparatory committee, explained that as an active youth group how they involve in Yuen Long District to promote cycling for low income groups. His presentation includes, bicycle parks in the area, usage and current problems that they are facing. Some of the suggestions that they presented was very interesting to improve bicycle parks in the area. Audience brought up the importance of cultivating the concept of sharing of space among road users, motorists, cyclists and pedestrians. Most interesting speaker to me was Mr. Jan van Der Grift who spoke taking examples from the cycling cases in the Netherlands. He speech gave the audiences more hope and how to put in practice on cycling as a regular transport mode.
I was glad to be part of this fruitful discussion. Sri Lanka too has similar issues in the urban areas having narrow road, inadequacy of cycling infrastructure, issues on safety/ cyclist crashes, conflict between other road users and cyclists etc...By a show of hands, the forum participants agreed to call on the government to act as follow; •Plan and facilitate cycling as a mode of regular transport •Provide routes and facilities which are coherent, direct, state, comfortable, attractive and environmentally sustainable. •Initially, prioritize the New Territories, islands and new urban zones as cycling districts which can be extended to the entire territory •Cultivate the sharing of space by motorists, cyclists and pedestrians •Create a cycling advisory board with representatives from community cycling concern, sports and professional bodies •Require public transport companies to review/ relax their current practices regarding carrying bikes on board so as to enhance making cycling as integral part of the whole Transport system.
Hope future Hong Kong will have infrastructure for safe and environmentally sustainable place for cyclists that inspire our dream come true.
After completing the literature review on vehicle emission control strategy in Hong Kong, Prof Wing tat has arranged my self and Linh to visit EPD during the month of March. During my three day visit (6th, 17th and 18th March) programme was facilitated by Mr. John Wong, Environmental Protection Officer and Mr. SM Wong, Chief Environmental Protection Inspector of Vehicle Emission Control Section, Mobile Source Control unit.
This was a great opportunity for me to clarify unclear area of SVCP. I collected related information’s such as Road Traffic Ordinance, code of practice (COP), accreditation procedures of the centres and other related regulation procedures that in return help to improve our on-going programme in Sri Lanka. It was also gave me a chance to discuss malpractices, overcome corruption, how the equipment auditing, data recording is carried out by HKEPD. I also understand how the data transfer from the testing centres to EPD, how testing proceed at the centres etc.
Second day of my visit, Mr. SM Wong made a presentation on Smoky Vehicle Control Programme. Then we went to Remote Sensing testing site with Mr. William Wong and get experience on advanced equipments and techniques used. This activity was arranged by EPD for my request to study on going research work in the field of Remote Sensing. I greatly appreciate EPD for responding for my request and making necessary arrangements with Environmental Technology Consultants (ETC) Ltd. officials. They have selected a site closer to EPD and ETC officials explained the testing procedures. This gave me experience on how remote sensing technology was used for screening dirty Petrol and LPG vehicles and also how EPD carry out research activities with relevant organizations. After that we visited the designated imported vehicle testing centre laboratory belongs to ETC. Gary Parker gave me an excellent explanation on laboratory equipments. This gave me experience on how the testing is proceed at the centres and also collect related forms and documents that in return to improve Sri Lankan Programme.
On the third day we went to Yuen Long in New Territories to visit Vehicle Emission Testing Centre belongs to Crown Motors Ltd. When I went there I felt that John and SM have selected the best center for me to visit. This centre is responsible for EPD enforcement mechanism for diesel vehicles below 5.5 tonnes and also for diesel vehicles above 5.5 tonnes (for medium and heavy goods vehicles, single and double deck buses, and special purpose vehicles. This center has a designated CTC under Transport Department providing annual roadworthiness testing for petrol private cars and light goods vehicles below 1.9 tonnes. During our stay there was two light goods trucks and one double deck bus were present for testing. Also there were three petrol cars to receive annual roadworthiness testing from TD DCTC. Therefore I got exposure of all three type of testing equipments and how the testing was proceeding at the center.
I highly appreciate EPD for taking time from their busy schedule and sharing experience and knowledge related to Smoky Vehicle Control Programme and for their hospitality during my three days visit.
I and Bimalka attended the Public Forum which was held in the Exhibition Hall of the Hong Kong Productivity Council in Kowloon Tong on Friday, 20 March 2009.
There were three principal elements in the Discussion - The proposed new objectives. - The measures and process for setting and reviewing Air quality objectives (AQOs). - The likely benefit of certain emission reduction measures
More than 400 people joined the Forum, and extra seats were needed the day before Even though the Forum was during business hours . The Consultants presented the proposed revised AQOs, 33 proposals to reduce pollution and a cost-benefit analysis (CBA) of these proposals. Most of the Q&A session focused on the CBA and time table for new AQOs.
Although both the Government and Consultants have repeatedly expressed the priority of addressing public health in setting the new AQOs, the Consultant couldn’t give the explanation for how much current health impacts will be reduced by the proposed measures and how they gave the new standard in new AQOs. On the other hand the Government was unwilling to commit to a timeline for implementation full AQOs The Public Forum widened my view about how the public reacted to the proposal from Government. Many people in many different social positions came to the Forum and contribute their comments with the strong desire to improve the air quality and the public health. Some people even wore the biological masks as one way to protest air pollution.
The Discussion was only within 2 hours, but recorded many valuable contributions for Consultant and Government in next steps.
