Living in a gas chamber

New Delhi: Conversations about air pollution peaked in the national capital in the year 2016 with the air quality index dipping to “dangerous” levels post Diwali celebrations. Additional factors such as agricultural clearing by fire in the Indo-Gangetic plain, slowing wind speeds, curling north-westerly winds, dropping temperatures exacerbated the problem. With no solution in sight as the air quality degraded to dangerous levels, political blame game took over the need to address the cause and the Delhi Government resorted to announcing myopic measures such as installation of air purifiers and mist fountains at the traffic intersections.

In response to the alarmingly high levels of pollution, over 1,800 schools were shut down in the national Capital as the toxic mix of emissions originating from a mix of factors including Diwali fireworks, stubble burning and omnipresent urban emissions (vehicular, construction and industrial) were declared lethal to breathe. Post Diwali, the city was reduced to a gas chamber with visibility dropping to new low prompting the AAP government to issue an advisory for the people to stay indoors and avoid venturing out.

As Delhi choked with the rising level of air pollution, the Delhi high court slammed the Centre and state governments saying, they are only interested in indulging in vote-bank politics and are not concerned about people behind the ballot. Criticising the governments for being ignorant, the high court said, “Delhi ranks as one of the worst polluted cities in world. The governments only care about politics and votes, not about the people behind the ballot. Pollution gives rise to several respiratory issues in kids and older people,” the court had added.

According to statistics, as many as 30,000 people die in the city due to pollution every year. Experts have warned that the numbers may get bigger, if urgent long-term solutions are not employed to deal with the drastic situation. However, the political class fell short of acknowledging the problem and a collective will to chart out long-term measures to battle the worsening air pollution in the city. While the causes for rising air pollution and deteriorating air quality have been analysed and discussed threadbare by the experts, no concrete solutions have been put in place. Solutions have been
offered year by year, but nothing major has been achieved.

Though the year started on a promising note with the AAP government introducing the vehicular rationing scheme to battle the problem, the re-introduction of the scheme failed to achieve results. The average commute speeds in the city went up but no statistically significant change could be monitored for air quality. Experts pointed out that the odd-even policy was, and is, a good policy but for the level of infrastructure in Delhi, this will remain an experiment.

Environment experts argue that air pollution in cities is largely a symptom of insufficient urban planning, whether due to waste burning, traffic or industrial emissions.

The only way to address it is through looking at the principal sources and finding ways to reduce pollution at their level. It takes planning, inter-agency cooperation, good governance and political will, so proposing solutions that only mitigate it at a small scale are not, and will not be, sustainable.

They are ineffective at best, and waste valuable resources that take away from working towards a constructive solution.