Govt claims improvement in air quality of 95 cities, CSE flags limitations of city-based approach
Ninety-five out of 132 polluted cities, identified under a national programme on clean air, have shown improvement in air quality by reducing particulate matter (PM10) concentration in 2021-22 compared to 2017 with Varanasi recording the highest 53% reduction in the level of hazardous pollutant during the period, showed a government analysis released on Wednesday. It also noted that 20 of these cities, including Chennai, Madurai, Nashik and Chittur, have actually conformed to the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) that put acceptable annual average limit of PM10 at 60 micrograms per cubic meter (µg/m3). The analysis has not factored in other fine particulate matter PM2.5 for the sake of uniformity as only PM10 is monitored at all 132 cities. Under the national clean air programme (NCAP), the ministry has set targets of 20-30% reduction in particulate matter concentration by 2024 across the country. Congratulations! You have successfully cast your vote Besides Varanasi which reported the biggest improvement, the other cities that have shown improvement in PM10 levels during that period include Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Noida, Ghaziabad, Lucknow, Kanpur, Agra, Pune, Nagpur and Chandigarh. In the case of Delhi, the PM10 level reduced from 241 µg/m3 in 2017 to 196 µg/m3 in 2021-22 — a reduction of 18%. The PM10 concentration in most of the cities, in fact, continues to be figured at much higher levels than the targets as well as the NAAQS limit despite showing improvement. Noting that the factors responsible for air pollution are different in different regions, environment minister Bhupender Yadav said the government has given a transboundary mandate to the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) recognising the importance of dealing with air pollution at the ‘airshed’ level. “I am happy that this experiment has been tremendously successful,”he said while speaking at an event to mark the International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies. An airshed is defined as a geographical area having the same air mass being affected by similar topographical and meteorological conditions. Referring to how most of the cities continue to face severe air pollution in terms of high concentration of both PM2.5 and PM10, the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) warned that the existing clean air action plans that draw hard boundaries around cities for the clean-up job are failing to address the major pollution sources in the larger orbit. Expressing the need to adopt a regional air quality management framework, it said that the state action plans under NCAP need to break the silos between NCAP and non-NCAP cities for region-wide air quality improvement and reduce emissions from industry, vehicles, waste, and solid fuels in households across all regions. “The science of regional influence of pollution has begun to take shape in India. The NCAP has taken on board the principle of regional air quality management. But there is no regulatory framework to enable multi-jurisdiction management for aligned action and to establish the upwind and downwind responsibilities of state governments to improve regional air quality,” said Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director, CSE. The CSE also noted limitations of the ministry's assessment of the NCAP cities, flagging how the absence of assessment of PM2.5 -- the tinier particles that are much more harmful -- won't give a real picture. Only 43 NCAP cities have adequate PM2.5 data for the period 2019-2021. "The expanding monitoring network of PM2.5 and key gases needs to be leveraged quickly to prioritise multi-pollutant action for more effective reduction of risk across all regions," said Roychowdhury. Another report, prepared by Delhi-based organisation iFOREST, highlighted the need of a national-level programme to develop the capacity of all stakeholders – cities, state and central government agencies, private sector, NGOs and media -- to effectively tackle the air pollution problem. “Our report shows that we need to train at least 1 million people over the next five years for air quality management. This will also create tens of thousands of new jobs in the public and private sector to plan, monitor, mitigate, and control air pollutants”, said Chandra Bhushan, CEO of iFOREST and the lead author of the report.