Let’s fight air pollution every day of the year

Delhi has just got out of yet another air emergency. As I write this on Sunday, the sun is shining in a blue sky. Yet, this is only an illusion of comfort. While escaping the ‘severe’ band of the air quality index (AQI) is a relief, the air remains very much toxic in the ‘very poor’, ‘poor’ and ‘moderate’ ranges.

Read the health warnings on Sameer, the government’s AQI app. It says ‘severe’ air pollution affects even “healthy people and seriously impacts those with existing diseases”, and warns of “respiratory illness on prolonged exposure” under the ‘very poor’ category. Likewise, ‘poor’ air quality can cause “breathing discomfort to most people on prolonged exposure”. Even on ‘moderate’ air quality day, “people with lung, asthma and heart diseases can face breathing discomfort”.

For some perspective about ‘prolonged exposure’, remember Delhi’s air quality has been monitored as ‘very poor’ or ‘severe’ on 206 days in 2018, 213 in 2017 and 247 in 2016.

In 2018, as HT reported last week, Delhi was exposed to pollution levels 11 times higher than what is considered safe by the World Health Organisation (WHO). This analysis, based on average PM2.5 concentration, showed that the health crisis was not limited only to prewinter months when the pollution levels get up to 45 times as high.

While the WHO recommends annual average PM 2.5 level be kept under 10 micrograms per cubic metre (µg/ m3), India’s national air quality standards set the safe annual average limit at 40 µg/m3 and a 24-hour standard of 60 µg/m3. Last year, Delhi’s annual average PM 2.5 was 115 µg/m3.

Our business-as-usual keeps the baseline pollution very high all through the year. During the non-winter months, Delhi sees some relatively cleaner days due to favourable weather conditions, although freak build-ups such as the dust storm in summer lead to pollution spikes.

In winter, when the baseline pollution is anyway high, adverse weather conditions and seasonal factors such as stubble burning quickly push it to hazardous levels. It is only then we seem to recognise that Delhi has always been living on the edge.

The Supreme Court-approved graded response action plan (Grap) is meant to be a year-long exercise to check polluting activities even when the air is “moderately” clean. For instance, for “moderate to poor” days, Grap directs municipal and road-owning agencies to stop garbage burning, impose heavy fines for non-compliance, conduct mechanised sweeping on busy streets, sprinkle water on unpaved roads every two days and stringently enforce rules for dust control in construction activities. To control vehicular emissions, it directs the transport department to stop plying of visibly polluting vehicles by impounding them or imposing heavy fines and ensure ‘pollution under control’ norms are followed.

Unfortunately, much of this exercise has been reduced to a calendar event to be observed when winter pollution peaks.bhure Lal, the chairperson of Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority, says that in many places, enforcement is lacking and even if agencies are taking action on cases of polluting activities flagged by EPCA, it is often “after the event”.

Round-the-year enforcement require massive and rapid capacity building in the municipalities, transport department and the pollution control board. The municipalities say they also require more funds to meet the operation and maintenance cost of running mechanical sweepers and sprinklers, and to repair roads and footpaths to reduce dust pollution.

These logistics have to be taken care of not just in Delhi but the entire National Capital Region, which is yet to have a uniform pollution monitoring machinery. While Delhi has 37 automatic air monitoring stations, Ghaziabad and Noida have four each, Gurugram has two and Faridabad just one.

Proper monitoring help in identifying pollution hot spots and the contributing factors so that agencies can work on location-specificsolutions.fornow, the Ghaziabad administration has conveniently blamed the location of its four stations — a gasstation,aparkinglot,generator sets and a waste dump — for high AQI readings.

Without administrative will, even an adequate enforcement machinery cannot ensure compliance. While watchdogs such as EPCA must put their foot down in exercising the powers vested in them, citizens can also force accountability. If nothing else, report to authorities every time you spot someone fouling the air, make noise if there is no action, and, above all, stop treating air pollution as a seasonal woe.

OUR BUSINESS-ASUSUAL KEEPS THE BASELINE POLLUTION VERY HIGH ALL THROUGH THE YEAR