The winter is now finally over and Delhi’s pollution levels have also dropped. In the months of winter the Air Quality Index (AQI) was flying mainly in the “moderate” zone, as opposite to “very poor” and “severe”, this is generally the time when authorities in the Capital has failed to recall about pollution, only to be offensively awakened when a unexpected spike around Diwali drops Delhi into an additional public health emergency.
This year, for the first time, the Capital’s pollution observing and regulatory agencies are arranging a hotspot-based action strategy to tackle bad air even for the duration of summer months. According to them this will help them to make improved air quality for next winter.
As per to the senior government officials, the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) has acknowledged at least 12 areas where the pollution levels are high than the permissible limits such as Anand Vihar, Okhla Phase 2, Mundka, Dwarka Sector 8, Bawana, RK Puram, Rohini Sector 16, Narela, Jahangirpuri, Vivek Vihar, Wazirpur and Ashok Vihar. The DPCC found that these areas have the pollution levels have been set up to keep on at least two to three times more than the permissible limits on utmost days of the year, comprising in the summer.
The body, which is the city’s pollution control organization under the Delhi government, has made the decision that the bi-weekly action strategies, which will be regularly give in to by Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi assistants from April and is going to be obligatory in these hotspots to recover air quality all through the summer.
In addition, measures recorded under the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) for “moderate” and “poor” AQI levels will also be imposed by the municipal bodies and the revenue division, said the officials named above.
A senior official from the Delhi environment department said, “Even though some GRAP measures are to be implemented throughout the year, the actions become more visible during the winter when pollution peaks. But this time, we are developing a hotspot-based approach to fight pollution levels during the summer too.”
Even in the months of summer, Delhi barely acquires any “good” days when the analysis on the 0 to 500 AQI index is lower than 50.
A CPCB official said, “We plan to enforce the bi-weekly action plans, which are being developed by IIT Delhi in these hotspots starting this summer. For this, nodal officers in civic bodies and revenue department would be appointed who would implement the plans.”
CPCB teams, which have been failing violations all through the winter, have found that few activities such as construction undertakings, garbage burning and road dust are a number of of the major contaminators throughout the summer, separately from vehicular and industrial pollution. These contributions will be measured when the plans are being organised.
Mukhesh Khare who is the professor of civil engineering department from IIT-Delhi is making the bi-weekly plans said, “High-resolution data gathered by scientists from the ministry of earth sciences on major sources of pollution such as industries, vehicles and landfill fires are being used to prepare the bi-weekly plans. But we have requested for more comprehensive data on at least two sources — construction dust and road dust.”
D Saha, former head of the CPCB’s air quality laboratory said, “Delhi’s pollution depends on ground-level activities and meteorology. If we can control the pollution arising out of our ground level activities then we can further improve the air quality. But this has to be a round-the-year activity and not just a winter activity.”
