Air pollution: Enlarge the focus from Delhi

The NCAP cannot drive change in cities unless data and reporting issues are fixed

Two-thirds of the world’s most polluted cities are in India, and Delhi has the worst air among all capitals, the 2019 World Air Quality Report by IQAir AirVisual, which takes readings from 98 countries, said on Tuesday. The study was based on average yearly levels of PM2.5 concentration. While the media focus of the IQAir AirVisual report, which comes a year after the Centre rolled out the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), has been on the Delhi-NCR, this is an opportune moment to look at how other cities are faring on the NCAP, the five-year action plan with a target of 20-30% reduction in concentrations of PM10 and PM2.5 in 102 non-attainment cities, by 2024, with 2017 as the base year. This is important because the IQAir AirVisual says India has 14 of the 20 most polluted cities in the world.

While air quality monitoring has begun to expand under the NCAP to address the data deficit, without a methodical system for reporting, the data cannot drive change in cities. For example, manual monitors require at least 104 days of monitoring, which is 28.5% of the days in a year. But an assessment by the Centre for Science and Environment of the manual data for all cities shows that as much as 73% of monitoring stations do not meet this requirement. The cities are expected to begin reporting on their progress; but for that, they must know the methods and standard operating procedures. These issues need to be redressed without delay to ensure that cities are enabled to opt for the right path for clean air.