Delhi air and water in a dismal state

The Hindu , Thursday, June 05, 2014
Correspondent :
On the effect of air pollution on public health, experts say the city is sitting on a ticking time bomb

On the eve of World Environment Day, the Capital does not score very high on the environmental report card going by the views of environmentalists and conservationists based in the city. While successive governments have long debated on what needs to be done to clean the Yamuna, the river has only steadily deteriorated, being reduced to a stream of waste passing through the Capital. The 22-km stretch of the river, which makes up 2 per cent of the length of the river basin, accounts for 80 per cent pollution load of the river in its entire stretch, notes the Centre of Science and Environment in its policy paper ‘State of Pollution in the Yamuna’ in 2009. Experts say the pollution levels as recorded by the Central Pollution Control Board show no signs of revival of the river.

“There are some positive signs after the National Green Tribunal’s interventions but we cannot say what the effects will be over the long term. After NGT set a fine of Rs.5 lakh in 2013, there has been no solid waste dumping on a large-scale or encroachments by the government. The Millennium Bus Depot planned close to the river bank is being relocated. So there is some hope,” said Manoj Misra, who petitioned the green tribunal in 2012 and 2013 to intervene to stop dumping of debris into the river. The air quality too has deteriorated. Last month, the WHO report based on a study of air quality in 1,600 cities categorised Delhi as the world’s worst city in air pollution. It said Delhi has an annual average of 153 micrograms of small particulates of 2.5 micrometers per cubic metre. Delhi’s levels were put at nearly three times that of Beijing that recorded an annual average of 56 micrograms of small particulates per cubic metre.

The WHO findings triggered a debate among different government departments with experts at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, under the Minister of Earth Sciences, contesting the findings. Most senior officials, however, agreed that the city’s air quality had worsened even based on the government’s own data. Delhi Lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung in May set up a High-Power Committee on Air and Water Pollution whose recommendations are expected in ten days.

“To improve the air quality, the government must bring the right fiscal policy on fuel, maintaining effective differential between petrol and diesel prices through appropriate taxation, and prioritising the public transportation agenda by beginning a “Million Bus” programme,” said CSE’s Anumita Roychowdhury, an expert on air quality. She emphasised that a crucial step will be to reduce the use of personal vehicles like cars as they are the worst contributors to air pollution.

As regarding its air quality and its effect on public health, the city is sitting on a ticking time bomb, say experts.

 
SOURCE : http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/delhi-air-and-water-in-a-dismal-state/article6084488.ece
 


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