‘Delhi’s improved air quality is a meteorological factor’

NEW DELHI: The air quality in New Delhi has improved due to meteorological conditions and not because the source of pollution was addressed, environmental group Greenpeace India said on Sunday after the city’s air turned ‘good’ for the first time this year. Continuous rains over the past week washed away pollutants in the air and cleaned up the sky.

Greenpeace India said instead of being euphoric about few improved air quality days, the environment ministry along with Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) should immediately enforce the National Clean Air Progr-amme (NCAP) by setting up time-bound emission targets. Sunil Dahiya, a campaigner for Greenp-eace India, said the respite was only momentary. The ministry has prepared a draft programme, which aims to come up with a comprehensive plan for prevention, control and reduction of air pollution, and to improve the air quality monitoring network across the country.

“The so called improvement in Delhi’s air quality is governed by the meteorological factors, not by addressing the source of pollution. This much talk about improvement is a natural phenomena as rain washes out the dust particles leading to impro-ved air quality,” said Sunil Dahiya, senior campaigner Greenpeace India.

“This is momentary to have few clean air days. The fact is that air pollution is present all year around, irrespective of seasons. More comprehensive actions on sources of pollution are required for sustained clean air days,” he said. The Air Quality Index of New Delhi was recorded at 43 which falls under the ‘good’ category. An AQI in the range of 0-50 is considered ‘good’, 51-100 ‘Satisfa-ctory’, 101-200 ‘moderate’, 201-300 ‘Poor’, 301-400 ‘ver-y Poor’ and 401-500 ‘severe’.