Air Quality Index (AQI) in Delhi has risen to dangerously high levels and IT is fluctuating between 400 and 500 in the last few days. Heavily polluted air is disrupting normal activities in the lives of Delhi citizens. The local government has ordered the closure of schools. Smoke and smog in the air present a very dismal picture of the city environs.
The above is happening when Pirali is being burnt in the fields and farmlands of Haryana and Punjab. It is happening when we have left Diwali days far behind. It is happening when we have a plethora of laws and regulations to check air pollution. We do not find such high AQI in global cities like Tokyo, Paris and London which are comparably populated. We do not find such high level of AQI even in Shanghai, which has equal or perhaps more population density than Delhi.
We need to understand the phenomenon of air pollution better and deeper.
We blame it big on Pirali burning. Pirali is organic stuff and its burning produces smoke which diffuses and gels with the atmosphere. The real big cause of high AQI is vehicular and industrial pollution.
Delhi and NCR have more automobiles than any other city of the world. It has also the highest number of Diesel Generating Sets which are standby sources of power for big buildings which the region has in plenty. There are government offices, malls and shopping plazas, commercial complexes, hospitals and schools by the thousands. Power outage in the satellite towns of Delhi is frequent, though it is much less in Delhi city. The GRAP-4 has brought stringent regulations to curb air pollution in the region. But things actually appear to be only getting worse every year.
The air pollution problem of Delhi is preponderantly due to heavy automobile traffic and unless it is reduced, there is no way that AQI will come down.
We allowed an astronomically high number of automobiles to get registered by the Transport Authority in Delhi over the years and are now paying the price for it.
There are things we can still do to improve the air quality of Delhi now.
Impose restrictions on new registration of automobiles
This is a step that will help a lot in bringing down overall air pollution but has never been considered in the past. Many studies have been made to determine the contribution of vehicular pollution to poor air quality. Most of them have put the figure at about 30 percent. India’s Government agency—Ministry of Earth Sciences published a research paper in October 2018 in which it attributed more than 40 percent of pollution to vehicular emissions, about 22 percent to dust and 18 percent to industries.
Ban the use of coal in hotels and restaurants
There are hotels and restaurants scattered over Delhi-NCR in thousands that use coal, including coking coal that produces particulate matter (fly ash) during combustion besides harmful gases like carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide and even carbon monoxide.
Determine and deal with the pollution caused by aviation
Studies need to be carried out to determine the contribution of aviation to the air pollution in Delhi as some knowledgeable sources have held it as a serious and significant air polluting activity.
Discontinue municipal solid waste burning
Municipal Solid Waste called MSW is the household or domestic waste and similar waste churned out by commercial/industrial units which is discarded in huge quantities in the Delhi-NCR region every day. The amount of the waste being directly proportional to population, is tremendous since the population of our region touches 25 million. The city of Delhi alone burns more than 250 tons of MSW every day. What is needed is arrangements by municipal authorities to collect and dispose of the waste scientifically through incineration. Organic and inorganic waste should be separately collected as seen in countries like USA. This is a tall task but steps need to be initiated in this direction.
Management of construction material at sites
Building construction and demolition sites are huge sources of dust and particulate matter pollution. Construction and demolition are a perennial activity in the Delhi-NCR region. Laws exist in this regard that make it mandatory to cover, store and maintain construction material properly. Laws also exist for the usage of water spray, telescopic chutes and wind breaker to prevent dust spread. But there is poor compliance as well as enforcement of these.
Enforcement
This is by far the most important step. Our bureaucratic structure is outdated and outmoded. It was devised and designed by the British during their regime to serve their colonial exploitative agenda and is entirely unsuitable for sovereign Bharat. Redesigning of the entire bureaucratic apparatus is the emergent need. It should have a sound system of penalisation for inefficiency and corruption and rewarding for efficiency and responsiveness to public.
