MUMBAI: With the city adding more high-rises and highways in the last decade, road dust now makes up over 71% of the particulate matter in Mumbai’s
air
, as opposed to 28% in 2010, says a study by the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) and the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB).
The source-identification study for air pollution in Mumbai was repeated recently nearly a dozen years after it was first done in 2010 by NEERI. The findings were presented during a town hall with experts in the run-up to
World Environment Day, June 5.
The data reveals that 45% of particulate matter is from unpaved road dust and 26.6% from paved road dust. The share of road dust from displacement due to vehicles or during transportation of debris has risen the most in 10 years. The data also shows that 3.1% of road dust comes from Mumbai Metro’s construction.
Rakesh Kumar, director, NEERI said over the past decade, emissions from industries and households hasn’t changed much. “But more roads and buildings were built, road repairs and demolitions done, and roads got crowded with more vehicles which now burn more fuel in less space. The city’s profile changed. The sea breeze that diluted pollution doesn’t penetrate the city as much as it did earlier due to high rises, leading to higher pollution levels.” Construction activity also makes up for over 8% of the PM in the air.
Another big contributor -- vehicular pollution – is at approximately 7%. MPCB officials said to combat vehicular pollution, a policy for electric vehicles was being drafted and Thane has been nominated the model city for implementation. Sudhir Srivatsava, chairman, MPCB said, “We are looking at providing incentives for 2- and 3-wheeler electric vehicles and related infrastructure.” He added mobile mist vans were planned for deployment along pavements and busy junctions to reduce effects of pollution. NEERI is also auditing 20 construction sites to plan better disposal of construction debris and waste.
Among sources whose share in pollution has fallen over the decade were landfills and open burnings, which dipped from 13.5% in 2010 to 3.6% now, and bakeries, whose share went down from 5.8% to 3.5%.
The townhall is being conducted by Climate Voices - a collective of 3 organisations, Purpose, Asar and Climate Trends along with the Maharashtra environment and climate change department’s Majhi Vasundhara initiative. Department principal secretary Manisha Mhaiskar said, “Recommendations from the town halls will be incorporated into a dossier to be submitted before the chief minister.”
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