NEW DELHI: With the
rainy season
nearing its end, Delhi is readying for winter, a time when
air pollution
hits a
peak
. A change in wind direction as the monsoon begins to withdraw from the region leads to a drop in wind speed and temperature, both of which trap local and wind-borne pollutants from neighbouring states. The
winter
action plan to combat pollution is expected to be released by the
end
of September. While data since 2015 does show the annual average PM2.5 level reducing each year, anti-pollution plans have to take into consideration that Delhi still needs to reduce its annual PM2.5 load by another 58% to meet national air quality standards.
Track the pollution level in your cityIn 2020, when the city went into a lockdown due to Covid-19 and determined the ‘base’ pollution levels that could be achieved if key sectors are regulated, the capital still could not meet the national safe standard of 40 micrograms per cubic metre for PM2.5, logging a reading of 96 micrograms per cubic metre.
An analysis by the Centre for Science and Environment on behalf of Central Pollution Control Board’s data from Delhi’s five oldest air quality monitoring stations — ITO, IHBAS, Mandir Marg, RK Puram and Punjabi Bagh — shows the annual average PM2.5 at 152 micrograms per cubic metre in 2015, but dropping to 127 in 2016, 120 in 2017, 118 in 2018 and 109 micrograms per cubic metre in 2019. By 2018, Delhi had 36 air monitoring stations and the average PM2.5 concentration that year based on all the 36 stations was 112 micrograms per cubic metre, still three times the acceptable limit.
“The most recent data relates to 2019 because in 2020, the lockdown affected collection of data,” said Anumita Roy Chowdhury, executive director, research and advocacy, CSE. “It is still clear that Delhi requires considerable improvement across sectors to reach anywhere close to the national standard for PM2.5.”
Based on a three-year, rolling average method, however, when the annual average readings from 2018- 2020 are taken, Delhi’s annual average PM2.5 is 105 micrograms per cubic metre, which Chowdhury explains is a more accurate determination of the average pollution level.
“Particulate pollution has begun to stabilise and decline, but the capital still needs to reduce the annual average PM2.5 by around 60%. There are big gaps in action at present. There is a need to scale up public transport, add walking and cycling infrastructure and implement parking restraints to reduce traffic volume. Delhi also needs to achieve 25% electrification of its vehicles, control pollution in small and medium scale industries and look at waste management infrastructure,” said Chowdhury.
Dipankar Saha, former head of CPCB’s air laboratory, said alongside local action, there has to be coordination with other states to ensure that stubble burning and dust, two external factors, do not add to the local load. “Until the Aravalis are made green again, dust will be significant with winds blowing from Rajasthan towards Delhi. Stubble burning, meanwhile, constitutes 30-40% of Delhi’s PM2.5 load in the peak farm fire period,” said Saha.
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