Air quality has deteriorated across several northern and central districts, the National Building Research Organisation said on Friday, and independent readings put Jaffna in the “unhealthy for sensitive groups” band.
Sarath Premasiri, Chief Scientist of the NBRO’s Air Pollution Management Unit, said air quality had declined in Jaffna, Mannar, Dambulla, Anuradhapura, Kilinochchi, Vavuniya, Chilaw, Kandy and Kegalle, NewsFirst reported at 8.06 a.m. Colombo time.
He attributed the deterioration to prevailing weather conditions and wind currents blowing in from southern India — that is, to transported pollution rather than to a local source.
What the readings actually showed
Separately, real-time Air Quality Index data published by IQAir put three areas in the “unhealthy for sensitive groups” category as of 11.30 a.m., the Daily Mirror reported at 11.43 a.m.:
| Area | AQI, 11.30 a.m. Friday | Category |
|---|---|---|
| Jaffna | 142 | Unhealthy for sensitive groups |
| Puttalam | 119 | Unhealthy for sensitive groups |
| Anuradhapura | 114 | Unhealthy for sensitive groups |
| Colombo | 90 | Moderate |
Readings between 101 and 150 indicate air that is unhealthy for sensitive groups, the Daily Mirror reported: people with heart or lung conditions, older adults and children may experience health effects, while the general public is less likely to be affected.
Those readings are consistent with the NBRO’s account in a useful way. Jaffna, Anuradhapura and the Puttalam district — which contains Chilaw — are all on Premasiri’s list, and all three are in the north and north-west, the part of the country nearest the source he named. Colombo, which is not on his list, was the one area measured in the moderate band.
The district lists do not match
Two filings attribute lists to the same agency on the same morning, and the lists are not the same. Hiru News reported the NBRO as naming six districts — Mannar, Vavuniya, Kandy, Kegalle, Badulla and Ratnapura — along with the Dambulla area, with the air quality index in those districts “between 101 and 200.”
Five areas appear on both lists: Mannar, Vavuniya, Kandy, Kegalle and Dambulla. But Hiru alone names Badulla and Ratnapura, and NewsFirst alone names Jaffna, Anuradhapura, Kilinochchi and Chilaw.
This desk has followed the NewsFirst list above, for three reasons: it names the official making the statement and his unit, it was filed earliest, and its geography is the geography the independent IQAir readings corroborate. Badulla and Ratnapura are hill-country and south-western districts, which sit awkwardly with a cause described as wind arriving from southern India. The divergence is recorded rather than resolved — this desk has not seen the NBRO bulletin itself and cannot say which list reproduces it.
The index range also differs. Hiru’s “101 to 200” spans two categories: 101–150 is unhealthy for sensitive groups, while 151–200 is unhealthy for the general population. None of the measured readings reported on Friday reached 151.
Not reported
No filing gives a district-by-district AQI figure from the NBRO itself, so the two accounts cannot be reconciled against the agency’s own numbers. None states which pollutant drove the readings — particulate matter, ozone or another — or gives a PM2.5 concentration.
None says how long the conditions are expected to last, and no filing reports any health advisory, school guidance or outdoor-activity restriction being issued by the Health Ministry or any provincial authority. The IQAir readings are a commercial real-time index and are not stated to be the NBRO’s own monitoring data.
