Sting in the air

Sting in the air

What has happened?

The WHO’s global pollution database, that was released this week, is not the first worldwide survey to give Indian cities a poor report card on air quality indicators. In what should be worrying news for policymakers, the survey counts 13 Indian cities, other than Delhi, as among the top 20 hotspots of PM 2.5.

Policymakers need to pay attention to smaller cities as well

More than a fourth of the automatic air quality pollution monitoring centres in the country are located in Delhi. Kanpur, the worst performer on the WHO index, has just one centre to monitor real-time air quality

Different solutions for India’s differing geologies of different states

• North India, the hub of pollution in the country, is landlocked, which means that the bad air does not find a quick release, unlike say, in Mumbai, where the sea absorbs a lot of the pollutants
• In many areas in the region, including Kanpur, a substantial chunk of the particulate matter is transported from the up-wind states
• It then remains trapped in the city for long periods. Policies must be devised keeping such constraints in mind. 

Worrying factors

• The draft NCAP does not set any pollution reduction target
• The draft takes a city-specific approach

Conclusion

The WHO report should alert the government to the fact that the city-specific approach needs to be synchronized with one that takes the regional landscape into consideration.