TEHRAN — A high-ranking working group headed by First Vice President Es’haq Jahangiri has been formed to deal with air pollution in metropolises of the country, ILNA news agency reported on Saturday.

The working group is comprised of ministers of interior, oil, transport, industry, energy, and economy, as well as directors of the Management and Planning Organization and the Department of Environment, governor of the Central Bank, police chief, and mayors of the targeted municipalities.

Approved by the cabinet of the ministers, the working group is tasked with monitoring, coordinating and taking measures to implement a comprehensive plan to mitigate air pollution in the country.

In line with the plan to abate the air pollution, the Central Bank of Iran is also demanded to pay a 22-trillion-rial (nearly $630 million) loan with 20 percent interest rate to finance Iran’s one-year clunker replacement scheme.

It’s been some years Tehran and some other metropolises such as Isfahan are struggling with air pollution all year round.

The pollution appears in different shapes and forms. Once they are particles less than or equal to 10 or 2.5 micrometers in diameter which sometimes are caused by hotspots located either outside or inside the country that cripple the cities mostly located in southern and western Iran and makes it difficult for the citizens to breathe.

It is not easy to respond to these dust storms right away as they usually need to be dealt with on international level.

In other cases they are resulted from the cars which usually are considered as clunkers that are abundant in the country and partially responsible for the air pollution as well.

There are some scrappage schemes for such cars in Iran as well and some banks also finance them.

MQ/MG