First time in 5 months, Delhi’s air may turn ‘ very poor’ by Tuesday
FOUL AIR Graded Response Action Plan likely to kick in, experts say air quality deteriorated drastically in last week raising risk of diseases
NEWDELHI: Delhi’s air quality, for the first time in five months, is on the verge of turning ‘very poor’ once again, raising health concerns among millions of people living in the national capital.
The Graded Response Action Plan to tackle ‘very poor’ and ‘severe’ categories of air pollution is scheduled to come into force in Delhi-ncr from Tuesday.
The plan suggests a range of actions that needs to be adopted once air pollution turns ‘very poor’ in the city. This includes increasing parking fees by at least 3–4 times to discourage car owners from using their vehicles, ban on diesel generator sets and ban on using coal and firewood in hotels and eateries, among others.
Data available with the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) revealed that the last time Delhi had to face such high levels of pollution was in May 2017, when the summer crop burning was going on.
In 2016, when air pollution had turned ‘severe,’ a category above ‘ very poor’, the government had introduced the Odd-even car rationing scheme.
According to the National Air Quality Index maintained by Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) pollution level is considered ‘very poor’ if the AQI is more than 301. It is considered ‘poor’ if it is between 201 and 300.
Even though the AQI of Delhi was below the 200 mark, which is considered as ‘moderate’ till Oct 6, it started deteriorating drastically over the past one week.
CPCB data showed that on Saturday 2 pm it touched the 300mark. This means the air quality of Delhi is just one notch below the very poor category.
Prolonged exposure to such levels of air pollution could trigger respiratory problems, experts said.
“The reason is two-fold. While on one hand ground level activities are triggering heavy pollution, meteorological conditions are also not in favour of Delhi. Particulate matter – PM10 and PM2.5 – have shot up over the past few days,” said D Saha head of the air quality laboratory at CPCB.
The System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) on Saturday predicted that the levels of both PM 2.5 and PM 10 could shoot up further over the next two days.