It’s often difficult to tell anything more than a few feet in front of you because Delhi’s air pollutants is so terrible. And it is affecting women’s wellbeing. Breathing is uncomfortable, and one of us ( Komali ) developed rashes and red eyes on a recent trip to the city.
Our views are not uncommon. Delhi, which is formally Delhi’s National Capital Territory, is one of the world’s second-largest industrial areas and one of its most polluted. Air pollution just exceeded the recommended good control of 26 times by the World Health Organization.
The air quality index, or AQI, is a measure of how polluted the air is on a scale of 0 ( clean ) to 500 ( maximum pollution ). On November 19, Delhi’s normal was 485. The true number would be even higher since many of its air pollutants cameras were at a maximum of 500.
Every autumn, when more people experience respiratory difficulties and more clinic visits, things get going. An incredible 11.5 % of all deaths in the area may be attributed to air pollutants, a loss of around 12, 000 lives every year.
A human-made catastrophe
This is a human-made disaster with numerous causes. Some components are common to many big and fast-growing places, especially in emerging economies. Delhi has several coal power plants, for example, and its roads are choked with big customers. Years of debris, typically from the building industry, have accumulated in and around the area. Waste is usually just burned.
But some aspects are more precise and it is these that force Delhi from “regular waste” into catastrophe. Farmers in north India, particularly the heartland states of Punjab and Haryana, burn off unnecessary straw in fields every year, causing massive clouds of smoke to flow downwind toward Delhi. Fireworks performed at Diwali ( held on October 31, 2024 ) also contribute to a small but noticeable rise in air pollution.
All of this is made worse when the autumn arrives, when a coating of cooler air is pressed against the city to trap cold, polluted air, known as temperature inversion.
A informed energy
The risk of waste is increasing. There is a lack of political would to address the issue, and central and state regulators are to blame one another. Individuals seem unwilling to accept responsibility and prevent polluting.
A informed energy is needed. Fortunately, certain policies could make a difference. Materials should be covered at construction and demolition sites, for instance, to stop so much dust from being blown into the air. This may require Delhi to strengthen its legal enforcement system.
The town really build new gardens and plant more plants along the streets. Plants are excellent at combating weather pollution. Waste using should remain restricted. Finally, coal power will need to be replaced by storm and particularly renewable. Big diesel-powered transport vehicles that transport non-essential items can be severely slowed down when pollution is worst.
Farmers, for their part, must stop burning plant material left behind ( known as stubble ) after food is harvested. This is simpler to say than to do. Some farmers burn off their wheat grass in November before planting wheat in the same industry because the areas up north of Delhi typically have two growing seasons. The system has been in place for a long time and is essentially locked in, with the most powerful actors lacking any motivation to alter things.
There are some options. Farmers might be urged to extend their crops through problems that are attached to loans. Some of that grass may otherwise be used as cattle supply, in soil, as roofer material. Some could be burned to produce light in biofuels plants.
Evidence-based techniques and best methods are critical. The objective must be to lower Delhi and the surrounding area’s air quality index to a “good” range of 0 to 50 and, in the end, to completely free the weather.
Komali Kantamaneni is co-director of the United Nations-SPIDER-UK Regional Support Office and a senior research fellow in the School of Engineering, Preston, UK, University of Central Lancashire, and Sigamani Panneer is a teacher at Jawaharlal Nehru University.
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