{"id":35316,"date":"2018-10-31T16:23:00","date_gmt":"2018-10-31T10:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=35316"},"modified":"2018-10-31T16:23:00","modified_gmt":"2018-10-31T10:53:00","slug":"delhis-air-pollution-puzzle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/delhis-air-pollution-puzzle\/","title":{"rendered":"Delhi\u2019s air pollution puzzle:\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.livemint.com\/Opinion\/gxdnb5FqKXkE1mQd9LYP2N\/Delhis-air-pollution-puzzle.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Delhi\u2019s air pollution puzzle<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Context:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to a WHO report, Delhi has the worst air quality among the megacities (cities with the population of at least 14 million)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>What does the WHO report say?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There were 4.24 million deaths globally in 2015 attributable to PM2.5 (fine \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 particulate matter with a diameter less than 2.5 micrometer)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India accounted for 26% of the total deaths globally- 1.09million<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Among the megacities, Delhi has the worst air quality<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>What is the existing framework to tackle air pollution in Delhi?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A graded response action plan was enforced on 12<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">th<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> January 2017.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The plan describes a series of measures to be implemented by the court-mandated, Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA) in coordination with relevant state agencies. <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Based on the air quality the grades have been classified as Emergency, Severe, Very Poor and Moderate poor.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is the first legal framework for coordination among Delhi\u2019s various pollution controlling agencies and its neighbouring states. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>What was the need to devise such a plan?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In November 2016, Delhi was engulfed in a toxic smog when the PM2.5 level rose to 999 micrograms (mg)\/metre cube (m3) \u2014 much higher than the Indian ambient air quality standard of 60mg\/m3, and the WHO standard of 25mg\/m3\u2014on a 24-hour average basis.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This led to widespread public protests.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 2016, the supreme Court had termed Delhi\u2019s air \u201ca public health emergency \u201cand had asked the Union government to prepare a graded response action plan specifically for the city<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>What is the need to have coordination with neighbouring states to curb air pollution in Delhi?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The sources of PM2.5 air pollution in Delhi are both internal and external<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The contribution of the neighbouring states of Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab to Delhi\u2019s air pollution is mainly due to the burning of crop residue.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The contribution is variable and depends on the time of the year. It varies from 26% during winters to 12% during summers<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>What does \u2018graded response\u2019 to air pollution mean?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A graded response lays down stratified actions that are required to be taken as and when the concentration of pollutants, in this case particulate matter, reaches a certain level.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Which other cities have tried such a system?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Paris<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Beijing<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Singapore<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>What are the measures recommended in the \u2018Graded response action plan\u2019 for Delhi?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Traffic rationing schemes<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ban on construction activities and banning diesel generators \u00a0if the air quality hits the \u201csevere\u201d mark (PM2.5&gt;250 mg\/m3), <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Other measures include: \u00a0closing brick kilns, stone crushers, hot mix plants and intensifying public transport services and increasing the frequency of mechanised cleaning and sprinkling of water on roads<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>How far has the graded response action plan been successful in Delhi?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Official data from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) indicates that the air continues to be unhealthy in Delhi even after the \u2018graded response action plan\u2019 was launched.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Air quality in Delhi has failed to meet National PM2.5 health standards and WHO air quality guidelines of PM2.5 <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>What are the reasons for the failure of the graded action programme?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The CPCB and State Pollution Control Boards (SPCB) face institutional, technical and manpower constraints.<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Manpower shortage: All SPCBs have a combined manpower shortage of 35% to 40%. This hampers the ability of the EPCA to enforce the plan.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Technical issues:<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Delhi has 15 air pollution monitoring stations manned by the CPCB, of which only 10 are functional. Many of these are not properly calibrated and there are quality concerns on the data they generate.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lack of well equipped air pollution forecasting Platform<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lack of coordination among the agencies of Delhi and its neighbouring states<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Delhi\u2019s air pollution puzzle:\u00a0 Context: According to a WHO report, Delhi has the worst air quality among the megacities (cities with the population of at least 14 million) What does the WHO report say? There were 4.24 million deaths globally in 2015 attributable to PM2.5 (fine \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 particulate matter with a diameter&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/delhis-air-pollution-puzzle\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Delhi\u2019s air pollution puzzle:\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-test-1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704704201},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35316\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}