Delhi can learn to fight smog from other large cities

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — New Delhi must adopt anti-pollution steps taken by other megacities such as Beijing and Mexico City if the Indian metropolis is to get serious about tackling its annual smog crisis, experts say.

A toxic cloud covered India’s capital, New Delhi, and surrounding areas this month, causing respiratory problems among residents and leading to school closures, flight cancellations and the declaration of a public health emergency.

The causes of the problem include the poor quality of diesel used to generate electricity and to power the vehicles clogging the streets, dust and smoke thrown out by a thriving construction industry, and biomass and kerosene used by the poor for heating and cooking.

Stubble-burning on farmland around the city, described by local officials this month as a “gas chamber,” is also cited by experts as a major cause.

“At the moment, Delhi is the most polluted city in the world in terms of air quality,” Sarah Colenbrander, a researcher at the London-based International Institute for Environment and Development, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Similar to other megacities, poorer residents are often hit worst by air pollution, as they are most likely to live along busy highways or near power plants.

They also tend to take jobs that are done outside, providing little relief from the toxic fumes.

Delhi residents breathe in three times as many fine particles that cause the greatest risk to health than the people of Beijing, another city notorious for high pollution levels that has begun to make strides in tackling its air problems.

The Chinese capital, which is home to about 22 million people compared to Delhi’s 18 million, still suffers from chronic pollution and congestion.

But Beijing officials have created an air pollution action plan ushering in strict traffic curbs and regulations on the city’s construction industry from November until March.

By limiting building work across and around Greater Beijing, dust levels have fallen, said Mukesh Khare, professor of environmental engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology.