Many small cities face toxic pollution as bad as Delhi
moradabad — In the northern Indian city of Moradabad fumes from burning electronic waste blend with seasonal smog to create an even deadlier mix of pollutants than in Delhi, where filthy air has caused public outcry and made global headlines.
India’s smog crisis has centred on the capital but pollution is as bad or worse beyond its borders, with millions in smaller cities like Moradabad barely aware of the harmful effects of the air they breathe.
Delhi, the world’s most polluted capital city, became the epicentre of the crisis as doctors declared a public health emergency and sent millions of students home from school.
But in Moradabad, like many cities across northern India, air pollution was also off the charts.
Yet few appeared fazed at their city’s degraded environment despite the metallic taste hanging in the air. “There is no pollution,” declared resident Shetty Bhai, as dozens of furnaces in the background billowed reeking smoke from smouldering e-waste into the air.
“We face no issues and work, play and run normally. We don’t suffer from any disease,” he said.
The city’s nearly one million inhabitants face a toxic brew beyond what instruments can measure.
The air quality index, a combined measure of poisonous gases and fine airborne particles, hit 500 — the absolute maximum beyond which no further readings can be obtained. The dial remained stuck there for almost a week.
The smog mingles with tiny particles released by burning e-waste that the WHO says can cause “irreversible damage” to children’s immune and nervous systems in high doses.
There was little evidence of masks or other precautions being taken even as smog hung so thick it burned the eyes and blurred visibility.
On a rooftop, pollution researcher Aprajita Singh inspected an air quality monitor and filters she had changed just hours earlier. The white discs had turned completely black. “Air quality in this city is very, very bad. It has an adverse impact on our health,” Singh, an expert on the damaging impacts of e-waste, said.
WHO in 2016 reported that 10 of the world’s top-20 polluted cities were in India, including four in the enormous state of Uttar Pradesh east of Delhi.
Moradabad is just a dot on the map in this impoverished state — which at 200 million people has the population of a large country.
In Moradabad, the city’s mainstay industry in e-waste scavenging roars on.
Metal salvagers illegally burn huge mounds of discarded electrical chips by the riverside, hoping to
The main cause of worsening air pollution is rampant electronic waste burning. Pollution levels have peaked in the last decade.
Aprajita Singh, pollution researcher
extract traces of gold and silver while exposing city dwellers to fumes laced with heavy metals and carcinogens.
The dirty industry has boomed in recent years amid a slump in brass processing, and ever greater clouds of metallic smoke have hovered over the city’s streets.
Health experts say a lack of awareness around the harmful impacts of smog in smaller northern Indian hubs like Moradabad puts these pollution blackspots at enormous risk.
Delhi’s short term plan
Under attack from the opposition for not spending a single penny in 2017 out of the Rs7.87billion collected as environment cess, the Delhi government on Wednesday said it has prepared a one-year short-term plan to tackle air pollution, an official said.
Revealing the government’s plans, Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gehlot said: “The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government has prepared a one-year short-term plan, under which it proposes to procure 500 electric buses within one year.”
The AAP blamed the central government for its failure to spend Rs7.87billion environmental cess collected in 2017 and accused the Modi government of blocking projects to control pollution. AAP chief spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj said the party never said the Delhi government had shortage of funds. “Though the government wanted to purchase buses, the central government did not allot land for bus depots,” he said.—