Centre, state should take collective efforts to mitigate pollution, say environmentalists

As Delhi air quality remains between severe and very poor category, environmental experts stressed that the Centre and state should take collective efforts to mitigate the pollution.

Apart from busting firecrackers, stubble burning, power plants, industries, transportation, fugitive dust, construction sites, and biomass emissions remain another major source of pollution throughout the year.

Delhi government in a bid to lessen the pollution has flagged off 144 water tankers. However, environmentalists said it was an emergency measure only.

An environmental activist Vimlendu Jha told ANI, "the wind speed has increased, because of which pollution is getting dissipated. Water tankers are emergency measures but it is not a solution."

He said mitigation of dust should be 365 days of activity, as pollution is not a Delhi centric problem but a pan India trouble.

"We need to understand the severity of this situation and how it is becoming a public health emergency. Despite the measures, we still have the AQI in the severe category," Jha said.

While talking about the preventive measure, Jha suggested that vehicular movement needs to be controlled.

'The sprinkling of water at construction sites can be done. Construction and demolition activities can be halted for at least a week because all these activities add up and deteriorate our air quality,' he said.

As per the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) the share of stubble emissions has peaked at 36 per cent on Saturday. The PM2.5 level is higher as compared to 2020 but much less than that in 2018.

However, the local winds picked up since Sunday morning and now the fast dispersion is expected.

Sunil Dahiya, an environmental expert said that "as immediate measures, Central government and Delhi commission for Air Quality management can ask industries to reduce their operations or operate their pollution control devices very efficiently or even shut down."

There are power plants that are working in the northwest direction of Delhi from where the wind is coming from and govt have to see if that can be done from other parts of Delhi, Dahiya added.

In the month of October, the Commission for Air Quality Management in Delhi and Adjoining Areas (CAQM) deployed teams that listed out of 6,596 construction sites more than 963 were found violating dust control norms.

Air Quality Index (AQI) level of PM 10 stands at 420 which comes in the very poor category and PM 2.5 is at 283 which shoots to the severe category.

( With inputs from ANI )