REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA
MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT
11.01.2025
Hakob Simidyan, Minister of Environment Addressed the Air Quality in the Republic of Armenia and the Concerns of The Public About It

During the press conference dedicated to summarizing the ministry's annual work, Hakob Simidyan, Minister of Environment addressed the air quality in the Republic of Armenia and the concerns of the public about it.
Recently, there has been a lot of noise regarding high air pollution levels, which is due to a number of circumstances. In particular, data on air pollution in Yerevan from the website of the Swiss technology company IQAir is being published. The Yerevan Municipality has also installed devices at construction sites to monitor the content of fine dust particles, PM2.5 and PM10.
These devices are designed to complement reference devices that use more accurate methods to provide more spatial information about air quality. However, they are quite sensitive to external conditions: high humidity, high or low air temperature, high pollution levels. The accuracy of the devices is ±10-40%.
There are no standard methods approved by the International Standards Institute for these devices, so it is not possible to calibrate the devices independently, without using other devices.
The "Hydrometeorology and Monitoring Center" SNCO of the Ministry of Environment of the RA monitors the contents of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, ground-level ozone, and undifferentiated dust in the air.
Legislative reforms in the sector and tightening of supervisory measures require the most accurate data, and the ministry is working a lot to achieve this.
In order to modernize the air quality monitoring system in Armenia and bring it into line with international standards, in 2024, the Ministry of Environment was allocated 300 million drams for the purchase of 2 air quality monitoring stations, the delivery and operation of which is expected in the 1st quarter of 2025.
The operation of monitoring stations will make it possible to measure the main air pollutants, receive information on time, and promptly present it to the public.
Also, in accordance with the agreement reached, with funding from the Japanese government, in 2025 the Yerevan city's air quality monitoring network will be supplemented with 3 more automatic monitoring stations.
9 automatic meteorological stations were already purchased at the expense of the RA state budget (200 million AMD), which were installed in 2024 in Kotayk, Tavush, Gegharkunik and Ararat regions.
In addition, at the expense of state budget funds, the previously installed 23 automatic meteorological stations were supplemented with snow height sensors, soil temperature and humidity sensors at 4 depths, as well as 6 water surface evaporation sensors, 3 of which were installed in the Lake Sevan basin.
All automatic meteorological stations and sensors have been connected to a unified system for online data acquisition and visualization.
All these works are ongoing.