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हर साल प्रदूषण बढ़ने पर पराली पर मढ़ा जाता है दोष, आइए जानें इसके पीछे क्या हैं वजहें

जब भी दिल्ली और इसके आसपास इलाकों में वायु प्रदूषण की समस्या पर बात आती है, तो तोहमत पराली पर मढ़ दी जाती है. जबकि ग्रीन थिंक टैंक सेंटर फॉर साइंस एंड एनवायरनमेंट (CSE) के एक विश्लेषण के अनुसार 24 अक्टूबर से 8 नवंबर तक का आकलन बताता है कि इस साल की सर्दियों के शुरुआती चरण के दौरान दिल्ली के प्रदूषण में 50 प्रतिशत से अधिक वाहनों का योगदान रहा. आइए जानते हैं कि फिर क्यों पराली पर इतना कोहराम मचता है, आख‍िर पराली की समस्या है क्या... बीते गुरुवार को जारी सीएसई की स्टडी में सामने आया था कि वायु प्रदूषण में वाहनों का योगदान आधा या इससे ज्यादा है. इसके बाद घरेलू प्रदूषण (12.5-13.5 प्रतिशत), उद्योग (9.9-13.7 प्रतिशत), निर्माण (6.7-7.9 प्रतिशत), कचरा जलाने और सड़क की धूल का स्थान क्रमशः 4.6-4.9 प्रतिशत और 3.6-4.1 प्रतिशत के बीच है. दिल्ली के बाहर के स्रोतों (राष्ट्रीय राजधानी क्षेत्र के 19 जिलों) के साथ-साथ पड़ोसी राज्यों में बायोमास जलने के डेटा से पता चलता है कि पराली बहुत मजबूत वजह नहीं ह वहीं, विशेषज्ञ कहते हैं कि पराली या पुआल हमेशा से संपदा रही है. लेकिन, हमारी नासमझी ने इसे समस्या में तब्दील कर दिया है. हजारों-लाखों-करोड़ों लोगों की निगाह में पराली किसी खतरनाक विलेन से कम नहीं. ऐसा माना जाता है कि हर साल अक्तूबर और नवंबर के महीने में दिल्ली-एनसीआर के आसमान पर पराली का धुआं छा जाता है. इससे प्रदूषण के स्तर में तेज बढ़ोतरी होती है. इस साल पांच नवंबर के दिन दिल्ली के प्रदूषण में पराली के धुएं की हिस्सेदारी 42 फीसदी तक रही. पंजाब, हरियाणा, उत्तर प्रदेश और उत्तराखंड में जलाई जाने वाली पराली का धुआं पूरे उत्तर भारत के आसमान में छा जाता है. इस पूरे क्षेत्र में रहने वालों को अपनी सांस के साथ इस धुएं को भी पीना पड़ता है. जिससे उन्हें श्वांस संबंधी, हृदय संबंधी तमाम रोग हो सकते हैं. बता दें कि यूं तो इंसान धान की फसल सैकड़ों सालों से करता रहा है. दुनिया भर में ही गेहूं और चावल दो सबसे प्रमुख खाद्य हैं इंसान के लिए. हमारे देश में भी धान या चावल की खेती सदियों से होती रही है. इसका लंबा इतिहास है. देश में कहीं- कहीं पर तो मिट्टी ऐसी पनियाई हुई है कि धान सीधे डालकर भी फसल हो जाती है तो कहीं पर पहले धान के छोटी पौध तैयार की जाती है। फिर उसे रोपा जाता है. धान की खेती और प्रचलन को इससे समझा जा सकता है कि देश में धान की सैकड़ों की किस्में उगाई और खाई जाती हैं. &nbsp;कई इलाके तो अपने क्षेत्र में उगाई जाने वाली धान की किस्मों के चलते भी प्रसिद्ध है, बासमती का नाम इनमे से सिर्फ एक है. अब सवाल यह है कि सदियों से उगाई जाने वाली यह फसल पहले क्यों नहीं समस्या पैदा करती थी और अब क्यों यह समस्या पैदा करने लगी है. जंगल कथा सहित पर्यावरण और वन्य जीवों पर अध्ययन करने वाले संजय कबीर बताते हैं कि पहले इसके चलते प्रदूषण नहीं होता था लेकिन अब क्यों होने लगा है या पंजाब, हरियाणा, उत्तर प्रदेश या उत्तराखंड को छोड़कर बाकी जगहों में यह प्रदूषण की समस्या पैदा नहीं करती. दक्षिण भारत में प्रमुखता से धान उपजाया जाता है लेकिन, वहां यह समस्या क्यों नहीं है. धान के डंठल यानी पुआल या पराली को हमेशा से ही किसान एक संपदा के तौर पर इस्तेमाल करता आया है. पशुओं के चारे का सबसे स्थायी इंतजाम गेंहू और धान के डंठल ही करते हैं. किसान गेंहू या धान को निकालने के बाद उसके डंठल को पशुओं को खिलाते हैं. पशुओं के चारे के तौर पर पुआल का बड़े पैमाने पर इस्तेमाल होता रहा है. पुआल को छोटे टुकड़ों के साथ मिलाकर उसके साथ कुछ हरा चारा बरसीम, बाजरा या गन्ने की पत्तियों वाला ऊपरी हिस्सा मिलाकर पशुओं को चारे के तौर पर दिया जाता रहा है. इसके अलावा भी पुआल का इस्तेमाल जमीन पर बिछाकर सोने, सामान की पैकिंग आदि में किया जाता रहा है. लेकिन, बिना सोचे-समझे किए गए मशीनीकरण ने इस संपदा को समस्या में तब्दील कर दिया. पंजाब व हरियाणा में किसान अक्तूबर और नवंबर के महीने में धान की फसल काटते हैं.&nbsp;फसल की यह कटाई ज्यादातर मशीनों के माध्यम से होती है. मशीन दान की ऊपर की बाल वाला हिस्सा तो काट लेते हैं. लेकिन, नीचे डंठल का एक बडा हिस्सा बचा रह जाता है. किसानों के ऊपर धान की फसल के तुरंत बाद खेत को गेंहू की फसल के लिए तैयार करने का दबाव रहता है. इस क्रम में वह खेत में ही पराली को जला देता है. हर खेत में जलने वाली पराली का धुआं पूरे आसमान पर छा जाता है. पिछले साल पंजाब और हरियाणा के खेतों में सौ लाख टन से ज्यादा पराली जलाई गई थी. इस बार भी जलाई जाने वाली पराली की मात्रा इससे कम नहीं होगी. जहां पर फसल को हाथों से काटते हैं, वहां पर फसल को नीचे से काटते हैं, इसके चलते वहां पर पराली को जलाने की समस्या नहीं आती. लेकिन, जहां मशीनों का इस्तेमाल किया जाता है, वहां पर इस डंठल को जलाया जा रहा है. जब इस बड़े पैमाने पर धुआं उठता है तो पूरा माहौल दमघोंटू हो जाता है. लोगों को सांस लेने में तकलीफ होती है. आंखों में जलन, गले में खराश, नाक में खुजली, छींक आना जैसी समस्या आम हो जाती है. दिल्ली-एनसीआर के शहर पिछले लगभग डेढ़ महीने से इस समस्या का सामना कर रहे हैं. कोरोना वायरस फेफड़ों की कोशिकाओं का इस्तेमाल अपने जैसे प्रतिरूप बनाने में करता है, या फेफड़ों की कोशिकाओं को खा जाता है. ऐसे समय में अगर प्रदूषित हवा में सांस भी लेना पड़े तो फेफड़ों के लिए यह अतिरिक्त मेहनत वाला काम है. इसलिए कोरोना के समय में प्रदूषण को पहले से ज्यादा घातक माना जाता है. <p>लेकिन, पराली को फिर से संपदा मे तब्दील करने के प्रयासों पर या तो समुचित ध्यान नहीं दिया जा रहा है, या फिर उसमें कामयाबी नहीं मिल रही है. पंजाब और हरियाणा जैसे प्रदेशों में धान की खेती यूं भी बहुत ज्यादा नुकसान पहुंचाने वाली है. धान की फसल को बहुत पानी की जरूरत है. कम बरसात वाले इलाकों में धान की फसल लगाने का मतलब है कि भूमिगत जल का बहुत ज्यादा इस्तेमाल. पंजाब, हरियाणा और पश्चिम उत्तर प्रदेश में भूमिगत जल के अत्यधिक दोहन के चलते भूजल का स्तर एक-एक हजार फिट तक नीचे चला गया है. कई हिस्से ड्राई हो गए हैं. नीचे पानी नहीं होगा तो मिट्टी की नमी समाप्त होगी और उसका रेगिस्तानी करण बढ़ेगा. ऐसी समस्याएं पैदा हो रही हैं. फसल के लिए कीटनाशकों के अत्यधिक इस्तेमाल से पूरी मिट्टी जहरीली हो रही है. पराली में जब आग लगाई जाती है तो उसमें रहने वाले न जाने कितने कीट-पतंगे और पक्षी जन-भुन जाते हैं. उनकी मौत हो जाती है, वे ईकोसिस्टम के लिए बेहद जरूरी हैं. जाहिर है कि हम इंसान उनकी जिंदगियों का कोई वजूद नहीं समझते. वे नष्ट हो रहे हैं, हम इसे जानना भी नहीं चाहते. पराली की समस्या का समाधान खेती के मशीनीकरण की समस्याओं को निपटाकर, फसल के पैटर्न में बदलाव लाके और उसे संपदा के तौर पर इस्तेमाल करके ही किया जा सकता है.

Once upon a time when the Yamuna was a river

Boat races, fishing licences and picnics on the banks—the Yamuna was Delhi’s delight until the city began dumping its sewage, effluents and debris into it. Can the river be saved? Photographs of women devotees offering prayers to the Sun god braving Yamuna’s toxic froth on Chhath Puja are an annual affair as is the outrage that follows over the condition of the river that once was Delhi’s provider. Fish, turtles and even crocodiles thrived in the Yamuna’s waters, which also saw boat races. Its floodplains provided fresh vegetables and its banks were a popular picnic spot. As residents of Delhi recall the glory that the Yamuna was, the river has been reduced to a toxic drain in Delhi, choking on human waste, industrial effluents, debris and everything muck that is being dumped into it. In Delhi, the Yamuna, which originates from Yamnunotri glacier in western Garhwal in Uttarakhand, traverses a distance of about 52 km. The 22-km central stretch —from the Wazirabad barrage in the north to the Okhla barrage in the south—accounts for more than 70 percent of the pollution, which comes from untreated industrial and domestic discharge and solid waste, a report by now-disbanded Yamuna Monitoring Committee said. That is a far cry from when a fee of 50 paise was charged to fish in the river. “Yamuna used to be vibrant. I still remember when we used to go fishing and swimming in the river during our childhood days. We cycled or walked to Gandhi’s samadhi at Rajghat and further to the Yamuna banks. We used to get a day’s licence to fish in the river for 50 paise,” Khalil Ahmad, an Old Delhi resident, told Moneycontrol. According to 63-old-Ahmad, the floodplain was lined with lush green fields and he and his friends would pluck radish and carrots there. “It was our picnic spot. Now vegetables grown on Yamuna banks are toxic. That wasn’t the case during our childhood days in the early 70s,” said Ahmad, who is associated with the Anglo-Arabic School and Tareekh, Art and Culture Trust. Sikander Beg Changezi said his father, Naseem Mirza Changezi, the “grand old man” of Old Delhi who died in 2018 aged 108, used to tell him about Yamuna’s streams that flew through Shahjahanabad. Shahjahanabad was the walled city built by the Mughal emperor Shahjahan when he shifted his capital from Agra in 1639. One stream used to flow through Chandni Chowk from Ballimaran to Wazirabad to connect the Yamuna. Another connected Sadar Bazar to Pul Bangash (the bridge of Bangash), which was built over one such canal. “Ballimaran was home to boatmen who used to ferry goods through these waterways,” Changezi said. Balli is a pole that is used as an oar and that’s how Ballimaran got its name. Darya Ganj, a haunt of the bibliophiles and a thriving commercial hub, too, derives its name from the Yamuna. Darya Ganj means a neighbourhood by the river. The word Ganj also refers to a trading post or a market, a nod to the business that the Yamuna brought to Delhi. It was once a busy waterway, said Sohail Hashmi, a Delhi-based filmmaker and heritage activist. “The Ashokan Pillar at Feroz Shah Kotla was brought through the Yamuna on barges. All the red sandstone brought to Delhi to build the Red Fort, Jama Masjid and other palatial buildings was routed through the Yamuna,” Hashmi said. The Yamuna was an important trade route, too, as it connected with the Ganga in Allahabad and then to cities like Kolkata. “Nur Jahan is said to have controlled all trade into Agra through the Yamuna. Agra was a major centre of the indigo trade,” Hashmi said. Nur Jahan was the last and the most powerful of Mughal Emperor Jahangir’s wives. Its beauty and rich aquatic life find mention in the works of poet Akbar Allahabadi, the late RV Smith, often referred to as the chronicler of Delhi, and the Delhi Gazetteer (1912) that talked about the presence of fish, turtles and crocodiles in the river, said Manoj Misra, convenor of Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan, a consortium of NGOs and individuals working to save for the Yamuna. The filthy turn In the 1890s, the flush or sewer system was introduced in Shahjahanabad by the British and that is when the muck began to flow, said Hashmi. “But the river hadn’t been dammed then like it is now. The population wasn’t so large. Many natural streams contributed to the flow of the river and so the sewage got diluted but from then to now, we have only been polluting the Yamuna,” he said. Irrigation and drainage maps of Delhi show more than a dozen streams and stormwater drains between Tughlaqabad and Kushak Nallah carrying fresh water from the Aravalis to the Yamuna. “Illegal colonies have come up on both sides of these drains and untreated discharge flows from these areas to the drains and then to the Yamuna,” Hashmi said. Over the years, industrial areas such as Okhla, Naraina and Mayapuri came up and their untreated waste flew into the river. “During earlier times, people were never dependent on the Yamuna for their water needs. There were step wells and baolis. Every house had a well. Those sources were good enough to meet the water needs at that time,” Misra said. The Wazirabad barrage, built in 1957, was another turning point, dealing one more blow to the river’s natural flow, which diluted pollutants, Misra said. “Barrages and dams obstruct the natural flow of rivers and should be done away with,” he said. At the Hathnikund barrage in neighbouring Haryana’s Yamunanagar, the Western Yamuna Canal and Eastern Yamuna Canal divert the river waters to Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, respectively. Whatever little is left is stopped at the Wazirabad Barrage. As the river heads south, all that is left is the discharge from homes and industrial effluents, barring peak monsoon days when excess water is released at Hathnikund and Wazirabad. “My father told me stories about boat races on the Yamuna in the early 1900s. He used to go fishing in the Yamuna’s canals near Sadar and other places behind Rajghat. He even founded an angler’s club. Look at the river now. Will any marine life survive in these toxic and shallow waters filled up with debris? ” Changezi asked. Until 40 years ago “Yamuna was a sprawling even river then. It is sad that it is no more than a ganda nalla (dirty drain) now,” Changezi said. What ails the Yamuna? According to the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a Delhi-based public interest research and advocacy organisation, Yamuna’s dissolved oxygen levels, a measure of a river’s ability to sustain life, is zero in Delhi. The biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) load went up from about 129 tonne a day in 1982-83 to over 261 tonne in 2019. A higher BOD signifies lower water quality, CSE said. Various studies and reports over the years also point to the problem. “Frothing points to a polluted river. Release of untreated or poorly treated household and industrial discharge is behind the frothing,” said Sushmita Sengupta, Senior Programme Manager of Water Programme, at CSE. Phosphates from detergent effluents from households and industries form the froth. The pollutants do not get diluted because the Yamuna has less water flow during this time of the year, she said. A report by the now-disbanded Yamuna Monitoring Committee (YMC), set up by the National Green Tribunal to oversee cleaning efforts, blamed untreated discharge from neighbourhoods, industrial effluents, dumping of debris and bio-medical refuse into drains for pollution. Use of detergents and chemicals at dhobi ghats along the river banks, chemical fertilisers and pesticides used by farmers on the floodplain and immersion of idols were the other contributing factors, the report said. Not just Delhi, industrial effluents also flow into the Yamuna from Haryana and UP, the YMC said. Though the volume of industrial effluents was low compared to sewage, it is poison for the river. “There has to be zero discharge of industrial pollutants into the river and until that problem is completely addressed, it will not make much difference to the river,” said Misra. Hundreds of crores have been spent on projects such as Yamuna Action Plan and other schemes to clean the river. According to 2018 estimates, Delhi spent more than Rs 1,500 crore to clean the river and this does not include the cost of common effluent treatment plants, the CSE said. “This is possibly the highest amount spent on river cleaning in the country but it has not worked, as is evident from the pollution data,” Sengupta said. Let it flow Earlier this week, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal announced an ambitious six-point action plan, including improving the city’s sewage treatment capacity and cleaning of major drains, to clean the Yamuna by February 2025. Delhi can treat only about 600 million gallons a day (MGD) of sewage because of which untreated discharge is released directly into the Yamuna. The Delhi government plans to increase the capacity to 850 MGD and add new plants. Cleaning up the Najafgarh, Badshahpur and Ghazipur drains is also part of the plan. Delhi alone dumps 720 million gallons of sewage in the Yamuna, a YMC report said. But is it possible to clean the Yamuna in just three years? “Everything can be done if there is political will… a completely clean Yamuna like it was in the early 1900s may not be possible so soon but we should do whatever is possible…at least meet outdoor bathing standards,” Sengupta said. CSE has called for an immediate check on the mixing of untreated and treated waste in drains, setting up sewage treatment plants on the banks and reusing treated waste, among other things. “Delhi can also begin to reduce its water demand and build water-harvesting systems for capturing rainwater for discharge in the lean season, so that water can flow in the river,” Sengupta said. “There is a need to relearn the science and art of river cleaning. Business as usual will not result in a clean river.” Misra stressed “understanding the real need of the river”, as he recalled a clean Yamuna during the lockdown in 2020. As industrial activity stopped, there was no discharge of effluents and catchment areas got good rain, increasing the water flow, he said. “So the river itself spoke what it needed. A flowing river can take care of whatever flows into it. That was the message. Is it so difficult to replicate?” Misra asked.

More steps needed for India's air pollution problem: Health experts

More effective and greater measures needed to deal with several air pollution issues in New Delhi, health experts say, adding that the low quality air further complicates problems for patients with respiratory ailments. The national capital is in the middle of a severe air pollution problem, forcing authorities to take emergency measures. In conjunction with World Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Day that was observed earlier this week, health experts said pollution aggravates respiratory ailments, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients, and more efforts are needed to tackle the problem. "When one suffers from this ailment, it means the lungs are already compromised – whatever be the reason that led to lung problems,” said pulmonologist Jalil Parkar. "When you have pollution, be it in any city, this pollution aggravates the compromised lungs. So the person starts coughing, getting an infection, and the person starts becoming more breathless. When there is the problem of breathless, it triggers underlying asthma... one has to use a nebulizer or oxygen or the patient may also need hospitalization," Parkar told Anadolu Agency (AA). He said authorities should work on the issues that are creating pollution. "You need to see it, the pollution which is triggering all the respiratory illness, during the period such as winter. Those factors, which are contributing to pollution – they are tackled rather than just treating the patients," he said. "Patients will become better, but we will keep on getting this as and when the pollution rises. You need to tackle these issues, which are creating pollution," Parkar noted. Air pollution has become a regular problem in the capital during the last few years. This week, authorities extended the closure of educational institutions and work from home in government offices. Smog is blamed for more than a million deaths in India annually, and a recent University of Chicago study found that air pollution was likely to reduce life expectancy by more than nine years for four in every 10 Indians. Authorities have struggled to address the root causes, with national coal consumption nearly doubling in the last decade. India fought more ambitious curbs on dirty energy at this month's COP26 climate summit, a move driven by its need for cheap fuel to power its booming economy. Rural agricultural workers meanwhile constitute a powerful voting bloc and year-end farm fires – the cheapest way to clear fields before the next growing season – continue unabated despite a ban two years ago. Winters in the capital, once appreciated for their mild weather after the long and scorching summer months, have become an annual endurance test for its inhabitants. Rise in hospital admissions Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director for research and advocacy, at the Centre for Science and Environment told AA that sudden spikes in pollution have an immediate trigger effect on vulnerable populations who are already suffering from respiratory conditions, asthma and cardiac conditions and the problem increases the number of patients in hospitals. "The available data in Delhi shows that emergency hospital admissions due to these symptoms increase during winter due to elevated pollution. Also, children and the elderly are vulnerable. Long-term exposure to pollution weakens lungs and impacts other organs of the body which also reduces life expectancy and increases premature deaths. Several studies are pointing in that direction," she said. Roychowdhury said while the Delhi government has taken several important steps to control the problem, it has not yet been rolled out in other regions and more action is needed. "More action is needed to scale up public transport systems, walking and cycling infrastructure, electrification of vehicle fleet and complete processing of wastes to stop waste burning and strong action on construction and construction dust. Moreover, comprehensive and integrated action is needed not only in Delhi but across the national capital region to clean up the entire air-shed," she said. "Only temporary emergency measures that have just been implemented to control smog, like shutting down schools, stopping of construction and coal-based industry and power plants among others, can at best prevent worsening of the current situation. But more systematic round the year action is needed to sustain the change," according to Roychowdhury. Delhi-based pulmonologist Richa Sareen believes the government and the public need to work harder to combat the problem. "We need more efforts not just from the government, but from ourselves as well. We have to be cautious, we shouldn't be going out during the smog hours, we should be wearing N95 masks as well. We should be using an air purifier indoors. We should not exercise outdoors in such conditions," she told AA. "We should use our prescribed inhalers and medicines regularly and get in touch with the doctor if any symptoms emerge," Sareen said.

Hindistan'da kırmızı alarm! Kış ayları daha tehlikeli

Hindistan'da uzmanlar, başkent Yeni Delhi'de Kronik Obstrüktif Akciğer Hastalığı (KOAH) olanlar için hava kirliliğiyle mücadele çağrısında bulundu. Sağlık yetkilileri, hava kirliliğinin, solunum yolu rahatsızlığı olan kişilerin hastalığını şiddetlendirdiğini ve söz konusu kirlilikle mücadelede daha fazla çaba gösterilmesi gerektiğini belirtti. Göğüs hastalıkları uzmanı Jalil Parkar, AA muhabirine, "Kış dönemlerinde, tüm solunum yolu hastalıklarını tetikleyen hava kirliliğinin göz ardı edilmemesi gerekiyor." dedi. Hava kirliliği nedeniyle akciğer hastalığına sahip kişilerin sorununun devam edeceğini vurgulayan Parkar, bu duruma yol açan faktörlerin çözülmesini istedi. KIŞ AYLARINDA HASTANEYE GİDENLER ARTIYOR Bilim ve Çevre Merkezinde Araştırmacı Anumita Roychowdhury ise mevcut verilere göre, kış aylarında artan hava kirliliğine bağlı olarak hastaneye başvuranların sayısının arttığını bildirdi. Roychowdhury, Hindistan hükümetinin başkentteki hava kirliliğinin üstesinden gelmek için önemli adımlar attığını, ancak daha fazla eyleme ihtiyaç duyulduğunu kaydetti. Göğüs hastalıkları uzmanı Richa Sareen de hükümetin ve halkın söz konusu sorunla mücadele etmesi için çok çalışması gerektiğinin altını çizdi. Ülkede, son birkaç yıldır önemli bir sorun haline gelen kirlilik nedeniyle bu hafta eğitim kurumlarının kapalı tutulması ve kamu çalışanlarının evden çalışması kararının uzatıldığı açıklandı.

Battling smog: Blame game without a game plan As expected, winter inversion and cool

and calm conditions trapped local and regional pollution that spiralled out of control <p>As always, the season’s first severe smog episode in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) has unleashed yet another routine cacophonous din. This time too, it is quite likely that the public furore and political frenzy may lose steam soon and fail to energise the deeper and longer term action for sustained change in the entire region This year, after a clean October -- owing to prolonged rains and deferred burning of agricultural straw -- the sudden build-up of pollution in early November was dramatic. As expected, winter inversion and cool and calm conditions trapped local and regional pollution that spiralled out of control.</p><p>Even though the notified Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) requires emergency measures during such episodes, it did not kick in when it was needed the most. The delayed response ultimately led to the closure of schools, a temporary ban on construction, closure of industry and six power plants running on coal in the region, and halting of truck traffic at the Delhi border (among other measures targeting open burning and vehicles). The inconvenience and harshness of some of these measures and their disproportionate impact on the poor already impacted by the</p><p>pandemic dislocation, has set off a concern around the need and effectiveness of such measures. When pollution is already trapped and only the wind can blow it away, emergency measures can only prevent the situation from worsening. But this cannot ensure a blue sky.</p><p>Yet, this failure to adhere to the annual routine of emergency action which is unavoidable when the smog is too thick, has exposed the deeper fissures in the strategy of the state governments in NCR. Even emergency action is constrained as the systems, infrastructure and institutional capacity in each sector of pollution remains inadequate.</p><p>Evidently, private vehicles cannot be stopped without adequate and affordable public transport, diesel generator sets cannot be switched off without reliable electricity, industry is disrupted without access to affordable clean fuels and strictures on waste burning don’t work without adequate municipal system to process and recycle waste. Dust remains a miasma with no strategy for arresting deforestation, green walling and soil stabilisation.</p><p><strong>Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/specials/sunday-spotlight/breathing-poison-in-delhi-1052930.html" target="_blank">Breathing poison in Delhi</a></strong></p><p>Need blueprint for local-to-regional action As the science improves to track air pollution and its sources – both local and regional -- it is possible to know the changing profile of pollution. Satellite images further show how the local smog over Delhi-NCR is part of the gigantic entrapment of pollution across the Indo-Gangetic Plain. This blurs the administrative boundaries of cities and states.</p><p>Pollution source assessment by The Energy Resources Institute (TERI) and Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) in 2018 has shown significant contribution from outside sources to Delhi’s air quality. Delhi also contributes substantially to downwind towns such as Noida. Similarly, the 2015 assessment by Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur shows that more than 50 per cent of secondary particulates in Delhi are due to coal and biomass burning outside Delhi.</p><p>Thus, science, instead of stoking a political blame game between state governments, has to harmonise the regional strategy. The Supreme Court was the first to ask for an integrated comprehensive action plan for Delhi and NCR that was notified in 2018 under the Environment Protection Act, making it legally binding. This is the first ever approach to region-wide strategy and compliance monitoring within an airshed. But there is barely any public or political focus on its harmonised implementation and further refinement.</p><p>This has not yet catalysed the system-wide changes in the sub-regions of different state governments in the NCR to accelerate the implementation of a multi-sector plan. Delhi illustrates the difficult challenge of curbing pollution. It has shut down all its coal power plants, expanded use of natural gas in the legal industrial area, banned dirty fuels, phased out old vehicles, put its entire public transport and local commercial vehicles on compressed natural gas, restricted truck entry among others. While this has stabilised and bent the longer term pollution curve, Delhi still has to go a long way to address the remaining gaps in action to meet clean air standards.</p><p>The entire region has to gear up for a massive scale of change. Coal consumption still dominates the industry and power sectors in NCR. Without the central government’s intervention to make clean fuel affordable, a scalable transition to electricity or natural gas in industry is not possible. Natural gas, being outside the scope of GST, is loaded with state taxes. The power sector needs tighter deadlines with right incentives and deterrence to meet the new emissions standards. Every household in the region needs access to affordable and reliable clean cooking fuels. Public transport, walking and cycling infrastructure and electric vehicles have to expand at an unprecedented scale. Entire waste needs processing and recycling.</p><p>All this will need integrated strategy and committed funding at the central and state levels to support this scale of regional action.</p><p>While the state governments’ own resources have remained business-as-usual, there is barely any support for the NCR region under the National Clean Air Action Programme. Also, under the national funding programme of the 15th Finance Commission for air pollution control, only Faridabad and Ghaziabad have qualified.</p><p>Without a blueprint for stronger local action and resources across the entire region, the next winter cannot be any different. Political and public discourse has to insist on verifiable and measurable progress and track this transparently in each sector. The region needs a game plan and not a blame game.</p><p><em>(The writer is Executive Director, Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi)</em>

Experts call for 'round the year action' to tackle New Delhi air pollution

Severe air pollution aggravates problems in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients, they say Health experts in India urged greater efforts to deal with several air pollution problems in New Delhi which further complicates problems for patients with respiratory ailments. The national capital is in the middle of a severe air pollution problem, forcing authorities to take emergency measures. In conjunction with World Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Day that was observed earlier this week, health experts say pollution aggravates respiratory ailments, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients, and more efforts are needed to tackle the problem. "When one suffers from this ailment, it means the lungs are already compromised -- whatever be the reason that led to lung problems,” said pulmonologist Jalil Parkar. “When you have pollution, be it in any city, this pollution aggravates the compromised lungs. So the person starts coughing, getting an infection, and the person starts becoming more breathless. When there is the problem of breathless, it triggers underlying asthma ... one has to use a nebulizer or oxygen or the patient may also need hospitalization," Parkar told Anadolu Agency. He said authorities should work on the issues that are creating pollution. "You need to see it, the pollution which is triggering all the respiratory illness, during the period such as winter. Those factors, which are contributing to pollution -- they are tackled rather than just treating the patients," he said. "Patients will become better, but we will keep on getting this as and when the pollution rises. You need to tackle these issues, which are creating pollution," Parkar noted. Air pollution has become a regular problem in the capital during the last few years. This week, authorities extended the closure of educational institutions and work from home in government offices. - Rise in hospital admissions Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director, research and advocacy, at the Centre for Science and Environment told Anadolu Agency that sudden spikes in pollution have an immediate trigger effect on vulnerable populations who are already suffering from respiratory conditions, asthma and cardiac conditions and the problem increases the number of patients in hospitals. "The available data in Delhi shows that emergency hospital admissions due to these symptoms increase during winter due to elevated pollution. Also, children and the elderly are vulnerable. Long-term exposure to pollution weakens lungs and impacts other organs of the body which also reduces life expectancy and increases premature deaths. Several studies are pointing in that direction," she said. Roychowdhury said while the Delhi government has taken several important steps to control the problem, that has not yet been rolled out in other regions, but more action is needed. "More action is needed to scale up public transport systems, walking and cycling infrastructure, electrification of vehicle fleet and complete processing of wastes to stop waste burning and strong action on construction and construction dust. Moreover, comprehensive and integrated action is needed not only in Delhi but across the national capital region to clean up the entire air-shed," she said. "Only temporary emergency measures that have just been implemented to control smog-like shutting down schools, stopping of construction and coal-based industry and power plants among others can at best prevent worsening of the current situation. But more systematic round the year action is needed to sustain the change," according to Roychowdhury. Delhi-based pulmonologist Richa Sareen believes the government and the public need to work harder to combat the problem. "We need more efforts not just from the government, but from ourselves as well.We have to be cautious, we shouldn't be going out during the smog hours, we should be wearing N95 masks as well. We should be using an air purifier indoor. We should not exercise outdoors in such conditions," she told Anadolu Agency. "We should use our prescribed inhalers and medicines regularly and get in touch with the doctor if any symptoms emerge," Sareen said.

Until next year? Stubble burning season nears end

NEW DELHI: The farm stubble burning season is drawing to a close, with fire counts in Punjab and Haryana starting to decline. The daily farm fire count came down from over a 1,000 a few days ago to 285 in Punjab and 67 in Haryana on Thursday, according to images from Nasa’s VIIRS-SNPP satellite. Delhi’s air quality, however, remained “very poor” for the third consecutive day on Friday with the air quality index at 380. A late monsoon withdrawal and frequent rain had kept the farm fires low in the first few weeks of October, but the number saw a steep rise in November and even surpassed the figures of the past few years. An analysis by Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) on the trend of farm fires in 2021 as against 2020 shows that the combined daily count of Punjab and Haryana crossed 3,000-mark in the last week of October last year. This year, it touched 3,000 in the first week of November. L S Kurinji, programme associate of CEEW, said, “This year, Punjab and Haryana reported over 84,000 farm fires, the highest since 2016. The cumulative number of farm fires in Punjab and Haryana observed a marked spike from just 20,723 until October 31 to 84,513 till November 18. However, he added, the fire count “has started to decrease as we approach the Kharif season’s end”. Over the past two days, the cumulative daily count stood at less than 1,000 farm fires as opposed to the daily peak of 3,000-6,000 at the start of November, Kurinji pointed out. The share of stubble burning to Delhi’s PM2.5 was 3% on Friday. “While the farm fires usually subside by mid-November, a delay of four-five days is noted, especially in Punjab, this year. This slight shift in the trend can be attributed to the delayed harvest on account of late monsoon withdrawal,” he observed. Gufran Beig, founder project director of System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR), said, “If the wind direction and transport-level wind speed are favourable, the low fire counts can also impact Delhi’s air.” However, experts emphasised the focus should now be on controlling other sources of pollution. Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director research and advocacy at Centre for Science and Environment, said, “Farm fire is an episodic problem around this time of the year. The daily fire count will become negligible soon. Now the focus has to be on aggressive control of local pollution in the entire NCR to prevent more smog episodes this winter. Also roll out the strategies for round-the-year action.” According to SAFAR, Delhi’s air quality is likely to improve to the lower end of “very poor” or “poor” from Sunday.

SC to smog tower to AAP-Centre data slugfest – Delhi’s air pollution is a no-brainer

Govt proposals to reduce air pollution, such as Graded Action Plan or lockdown, come either just before the smog season or when cities are already choking. This week’s newsmaker is no surprise. It’s been a topic of discussion on every primetime show, been fought about in the Supreme Court of India, and is pretty much something you can’t – and therefore haven’t been able to – get away from if you live in north India: air pollution. Predictably, the Air Quality Index (AQI) levels have gone through the roof – hitting record levels after Diwali – and politicians from the Congress, Bharaitya Janata Party, and Aam Aadmi Party have been pointing fingers at each other the last fortnight. Every year, history repeats itself, with no resolution in sight. Even though it feels like Delhi is the worst affected, the truth is that air pollution affects the whole Indo-Gangetic plain, with millions of people breathing in air that is at least 30 times worse than what the World Health Organization (WHO) stipulates is safe. A quick Google search will yield several results of government proposals to reduce air pollution, like implementing the Graded Action Plan and a ‘pollution-induced’ lockdown. But all these suggestions are made either just before the smog season sets in, or when cities are already choking. According to the medical journal Lancet, air pollution caused over 16.7 lakh deaths in 2019. If 2019 pollution levels persist, nearly half of those living in the Indo-Gangetic plain – including Delhi – will lose 8.5 years of their lives. All this is why air pollution is ThePrint’s Newsmaker of the Week. Interventions by Supreme Court Since the turn of the century, the Supreme Court has taken an interest in matters concerning air pollution. Today’s alarming AQI levels – between 270 and 340 in Delhi – show that it has been somewhat in vain. Until recently, the Supreme Court liaisoned with the erstwhile Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA), which prepared reports monitoring pollution levels in the National Capital Region (including parts of Haryana, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh). Even though the EPCA was bestowed with the power to file criminal complaints against non-compliant polluters, RTI reports show it never did so in its 20 years of existence. The EPCA’s most notable contribution to curbing air pollution was its role in ensuring all DTDC busses switched to Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) in 2002. But that was it. The lack of interest in solving the air pollution crisis brewed steadily over those two decades. Government officials, off the record, have said the EPCA’s demise was inevitable, given only two people – chairperson Bhure Lal and the Centre for Science and Environment’s Sunita Narain – “called the shots.” All other members of what should have been a 20-people commission, rarely showed up for meetings. The EPCA was replaced last year with the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM), a four-member committee that initially generated a lot of excitement, before quickly fizzling out. The Commission was dissolved, to the surprise of its members, five months after its launch due to an ordinance lapse. The Commission was promptly resurrected, and has since made 43 directives and issued seven advisories this smog season. Results won’t be immediate, but whether the CAQM will remember the pollution problem throughout the year – and not only when the smog season approaches – is something yet to be seen. Gimmicks and misleading data Among the latest gimmicks in combatting Delhi’s air pollution are smog towers. And here, the Supreme Court is culpable too. In 2019, the apex court ordered the central government to build smog towers in Delhi, and then demanded last year in September that this be done within 10 months. The Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government decided to compete, and took on the task of building one of the smog towers, in Connaught Place. Now, Delhi has two functional smog towers, each worth Rs 20 crore, but there’s little hope they will work. Besides the evidence outside our windows, experts have been warning against the installation of these expensive, ineffective machines for a while. If this wasn’t bad enough, the Narendra Modi government submitted what experts describe as “misleading” data to the Supreme Court on the causes of air pollution. In an affidavit, the Centre said farm fires contributed just 4 per cent to Delhi’s air pollution levels. This may be true as a year-long average, but during peak stubble burning season, from mid-October to mid-November, open fires (including farm fires) account for around 30 per cent of pollution. According to a 2019 study by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), a public policy think tank, the other big contributor to pollution is heating and cooking. Misleading data could have massive ramifications on how the sources of air pollution are addressed, but the slugfest between the Centre and the AAP over the data continues.

Clean Yamuna: Not lacking for effort, Delhi has spent over Rs 1,500 crore, but cleanup battle is far from won

NEW DELHI: An analysis done by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) says Delhi has already spent over Rs 1,500 crore on cleaning the Yamuna, excluding the cost of the common effluent treatment plants built in the city. CSE says this is possibly the highest amount spent on river cleaning in the country, but it has not worked as is evident from pollution data. CSE had analysed the data received from Yamuna Action Plan (YAP), which was launched to reduce the pollution load in the river with the first phase being started in 1993. image (25) In 2005, the Rs 380-crore YAP-II was sanctioned for Delhi. About 50% of this was to be used to rehabilitate 30.2km of defunct sewers by 2008. In 2006-07, Delhi Jal Board introduced its interceptor plan to lay over 60km of sewers along Najafgarh, supplementary and Shahdara drains. “This massive hardware programme, however, has not proved effective in terms of controlling pollution. An analysis of biological oxygen demand (BOD) indicates that nothing has changed in terms of pollution load in the river,” said the CSE analysis, which added that BOD load had gone up from about 129 tonnes per day in 1982-83 to over 261 tonnes per day in 2019. Explaining the issue of pollution in Yamuna, CSE said, “Delhi has already built 17 sewage treatment plants (STP), which together add up to 40% of the total installed sewage treatment capacity in India. But these plants remain grossly underutilised. The city does not have the drainage to convey all its excreta to the treatment plants. The untreated sewage from unauthorised colonies, which are unconnected to drainage, flows into open drains crisscrossing the city. But these are the same drains, flowing past colonies, in which the STPs dispose of their treated effluent. Hence, the illegal unconnected waste of the majority is being mixed with treated waste of the minority.” The report said the Yamuna could be cleaned when all sewage in the city was treated. It would require providing drainage to all colonies and sewage treatment for all. As Yamuna’s water quality could improve if there was more water for dilution of waste, CSE said, “Delhi can demand more water from Haryana, but this will be difficult. The second option is that Delhi can begin to reduce its own water demand and build harvesting for capturing rainwater for discharge in the lean season, so that it can allow water to flow in the river.” Sushmita Sengupta, senior programme manager, water and sanitation programme, CSE, said, “The treated effluent should not be put back into the same open drain that carries the untreated waste of the majority. We spend huge money first pumping sewage long distances for treatment and then waste this effort by dumping the cleaned water in unclean drains.” Among other measures suggested by CSE included treating sewage directly in open drains, building STPs close to the river banks to treat whatever waste remained in the drains and recycling and reusing treated waste to reduce the cost of pumping. The report also suggested treating all sewage by intercepting from open drains, not by building interceptors on existing drains and pumping waste to existing STPs. Yamuna conservationists said the river’s water quality had not seen much change. Manoj Mishra of Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan said, “Over the years, the Yamuna has gone from bad to worse. The only improvement seen in the Yamuna was in April 2020 due to the lockdown when industrial pollution was zero and there was good flow in the river. Yamuna then spoke what it actually required.”

Delhi: Treat before you dump, let Yamuna breathe, say experts

The dissolved oxygen levels, an indicator of the river’s capacity to sustain aquatic life, remain zero while the bio-chemical oxygen demand load has gone up from about 129 tonnes per day in 1982-83 to over 261 tonnes per day in 2019. River watchers and experts said Delhi needs to address its unplanned urban growth and work towards restoring the natural ecological flow of the river to allow dilution of waste water. (Amal KS/Hindustan Times) Despite spending hundreds of crores on Yamuna cleaning projects over the past three decades, several manifesto promises and schemes, a large part of river stretch within Delhi continues to resemble a sewage canal. he dissolved oxygen levels, an indicator of the river’s capacity to sustain aquatic life, remain zero while the bio-chemical oxygen demand or the BOD load has gone up from about 129 tonnes per day in 1982-83 to over 261 tonnes per day in 2019, show several scientific analysis of the river’s water over several years. The decay of organic matter in water is measured as biochemical or chemical oxygen demand. The river watchers and experts point out that unless Delhi addresses its unplanned urban growth and works towards restoring the natural ecological flow of the river to allow the dilution of waste water between Wazirabad and Okhla, the chances of the situation getting better over next four years appear to be slim. Professor Vikram Soni, a conservationist and emeritus professor at JNU, who has been working on issues related to Yamuna, pollution, said the political parties have been ad nauseam announcing projects about cleaning Yamuna over the last decades but nothing seems to change on ground. “The population of the city continues to grow in an unplanned manner and leading to increase wastewater generated by these settlements is going up. Several claims have been made in last 20 years but the river remains severely polluted. Removing industrial pollutants should be our immediate priority and all states need to pitch in,” he added. He said the annual phenomenon of foaming in parts of Yamuna shows that the industrial pollutants, which should have been tackled long back, continue to flow freely in river. Last week, a thick layer of foam was formed over the river section flowing near the Okhla Barrage, and in some portion near ITO. Under a six-point programme, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday announced that the sewage treatment capacity of STPs will be increased from existing 600MGD (million gallons per day) to 850 MGD, and new plants will be added to enhance capacity. Delhi currently has a shortfall of around 151 MGD (million gallons a day) sewage treatment capacity while it is estimated that an additional 155 MGD wastewater comes from neighbouring states. The Centre for Science and Environment has argued that Delhi has possibly spent the highest amount of money on river cleaning in the country, but the pollution data indicates that little has changed in terms of water quality in the river. Diwan Singh, an environmental activist who organised Yamuna Satyagrah for the river rejuvenation in 2007, said that Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had promised to clean the Yamuna within five years of coming to power in its first term (2013) but the situation has only worsened. “The technical approach of all the governments has been the same. On the one hand, the city is growing at an abrupt pace in unplanned fashion. The target to tackle wastewater from unplanned areas and industries keeps changing. The same thing happened with the interceptor sewer project which continues to miss deadlines as new sources of sewage keep getting added,” Singh said. Both central and state government as well as green tribunal and Supreme Court have ordered several projects to clean the river over the years. Yamuna Action Plan-1, which was one of the largest river restoration projects in India under the National River Conservation Plan, was launched in 1993 to increase the sewage treatment capacity and it lasted till 2003. The Yamuna Action Plan -2 was initiated in 2003 while the interceptor sewer project was launched in 2006 on the directions of the Supreme Court. The basic idea behind the interceptor sewer lines is that a trunk sewer line running along the large drains would be able to intercept the smaller sewers and block them from meeting the main drains while diverting the raw sewage to treatment plants. Besides YAP-1, YAP-2, projects under Namami Gange and Nirmal Yamuna Revitalisation Project (2017), several schemes have been announced with the aim of curbing pollution levels in the river. Manoj Misra, the convener of the Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan a consortium of NGOs and individuals concerned for the river Yamuna which has been working for its revival for more than a decade, said while a multi-pronged approach is require to revitalise Yamuna, industrial pollution should be the immediate priority for the government. “The river has itself spoken about the solution during the 2020 lockdown, when the water quality improved as the industries were shut and the flow in the river had increased due to good rainfall. Unless there is ecological flow in the river, no programmes will help,” he added. Misra advocated zero liquid discharge policy for industries. Zero liquid discharge (ZLD) is wastewater management system that to ensure that there is no discharge of industrial wastewater into the environment. It is achieved by treating wastewater through recycling, recovery and reuse for industrial purpose. A Delhi government official who asked not to be named said out of 33 industrial clusters in Delhi, 17 are connected to 13 CETPs (treatment plants). “Those drains whose wastewater does not go to a CETP will be tapped in the sewer line. If any industry does not properly dispose off its waste, it will be shut,” the official added. The government has announced that the STP treatment capacity will be increased to 850MGD and the 19 existing plants will be upgraded to meet 10:10 (BOD:TSS) levels, but experts say that the solution for increasing the utilization of existing capacity should be the focus area. Jyoti Sharma, head of FORCE- a Delhi based a water conservation and sanitation organization said that the under-utilization of STPs emphasizes that unplanned areas are not tapped and effluents are not reaching the treatment plants. “The action plan focuses on treatment. Decentralized STP should be our focus in JJ clusters and unauthorized colonies,” she added. A senior Delhi Jal Board (DJB) official said a lot of progress has been made in the last five years and there was an urgent focus on Yamuna cleaning projects now. “DJB CEO Udit Prakash has visited all the 18 drain points in Yamuna in the last couple of days and individual localised solutions are being formulated for each site,” the official added. He said the sewer network has been extended from 255 to 561 colonies in the past five years, and the number of sewer connections has also increased from 1.38 million to 2 million between 2016 and 2021. “Three new STPs have been added to raise the treatment capacity by 55 MGD and over 158 MGD of waste water has been tapped by partial commissioning of interceptor project,” the official said. An action plan formulated by DJB stated that the water utility aims to increase the sewage network coverage to 986 unauthorised colonies by December 2022, 1,625 colonies by December 2023 and all 1,799 colonies by December 2024. Prof Soni opined that tackling untreated sewage would take much longer time and investment worth tens of thousands of crores. “A large part of city’s unauthorized colonies are still not covered by sewage network. A large quantum of sewage from these areas still ends up in drains and river,” he added. Soni says the “clean” Yamuna may be a pipe dream. “Let’s take the example of Rhine river in Germany. The Rhine has been cleaned, but the water still remains non-potable after five decades. Perhaps we should focus on achieving a less polluted Yamuna by 2025,” Prof Soni remarked. Dr Suresh Kumar Rohilla, senior director-water programme, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said that the Delhi government needs to decentralise wastewater management and local reuse, as well as mainstreaming septage management as by the time they cover existing unsewered areas, new, unauthorised development will come up. “This catch-up game will continue unless we recognise this problem and plan citywide sanitation, moving away from sewage and centralised systems to sanitation for all,” Dr Rohilla said.

City’s air quality remains ‘very poor’; Rai urges Centre for joint meeting

Environment Minister says 70% of pollution is caused by sources outside Delhi The city’s air quality continued to be in the “very poor” category on Thursday and is likely to improve and be in the same range till Saturday. Environment Minister Gopal Rai said that 70% of pollution in Delhi is caused by pollutants coming from outside the city while the rest is contributed by local

'Delhi's contribution to air pollution is 31 percent, remaining 69 percent is from outside': Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai

Minister quoted a report published by a Delhi bases think tank called the Centre for Science and Environment Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai on Thursday said that Delhi's contribution to air pollution is 31 percent and the remaining 69 per cent of the pollution is from outside Delhi, adding that it is impossible to curb pollution without a joint-action plan by the Centre. Minister quoted a report published by a Delhi bases think tank called the Centre for Science and Environment which based its report on the data released by the Ministry of Earth Sciences' agency called System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR). --ADVERTISEMENT-- "As per CSE report on the basis of SAFAR data between October 24 and November 8, Delhi's contribution in air pollution is 31 percent and the remaining 69 percent of the pollution is from outside Delhi. The report matches 2016 TERI data which said 36 percent pollution released from Delhi and 64 percent from outside," said Rai. "No matter how hard we try, not possible to get rid of 70 per cent outside pollution without a joint-action plan by the Centre and a monitoring team. Data establishes that contribution to Delhi pollution is largely from outside. Delhi people have been constantly attacked over pollution," he added. Delhi's air quality continues to be in the 'very poor' category for the fifth consecutive day today, according to the System of Air Quality & Weather Forecasting & Research (SAFAR). However, the overall Air Quality Index reduced from 379 on Wednesday to 362 today. Meanwhile, announcing emergency measures to reduce pollution, Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai on Wednesday said that there will be 100 per cent work from home for the government departments till November 21. Construction and demolition work has also been banned till November 21 in Delhi, while schools and other educational institutes will remain closed in the national capital until further orders, Rai informed.

Delhi pollution: Of over 700 complaints, only 200 addressed so far

Central Pollution Control Board allows the Delhi residents to file pollution-related complaints -- such as garbage dumping, open fires, dumping of construction waste, and road dust -- either on their official website or the Sameer portal. Out of 733 pollution-related complaints registered with the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) over a 28-day period, only 229 have been redressed by various government agencies, according to a review by the pollution control body that highlights the lack of robustness in Delhi’s response to its annual bad air crisis. The North Delhi Municipal Corporation topped the list of agencies that recorded the most unresolved complaints -- 105 out of 126 for an 83% pendency. It was followed by the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (112 unresolved out of 140) with 80% pendency, while the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) and the Delhi Development Authority had resolved only one out of four and nine of 35 complaints they respectively received. The two corporations are ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party, and NDMC and DDA are agencies under the aegis of Union government. Status of complaints The Delhi Jal Board (DJB) was lagging too, having resolved only one of the six complaints it received. And so were the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC), which redressed one of the five complaints forwarded to it, and the Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (DSIDC), which addressed 21 of 36 complaints. DJB, DPCC and DSIIDC come under the Delhi government. The data from the CPCB review for complaints registered between October 20 and November 17 was accessed by HT. Across the city, 504 (or 68%) complaints were still pending across multiple agencies. Delhi Traffic Police, with 13 out of 18 complaints resolved, was among the better performers on this parameter, and the state Public Works Department led the pack with 22 out of 29 complaints resolved. CPCB allows the Delhi residents to file pollution-related complaints -- such as garbage dumping, open fires, dumping of construction waste, and road dust -- either on their official website or through their online redressal portal Sameer, which was launched in 2018. Complainants can upload pictures of violations in their localities, giving a description of the area. After assessing the credibility of the complaint, the pollution monitoring body assigns it to various agencies that are responsible for addressing that particular issue. “The pollution complaints that are logged with CPCB are first reviewed and then forwarded to the agencies concerned for action. Every day we conduct a review to assess the action taken. If complaints are pending for a long duration then we follow it up with the agencies concerned,” said a senior CPCB. Since a day after Diwali, when Delhi’s air entered the severe zone for the first time this season, the air quality has remained in the dangerous range for several days. It was only after at least a week of the city breathing toxic air that the CAQM on the intervention of the Supreme Court issued a set of directions to the governments of Delhi-NCR, which included the shutting down of schools, banning of trucks inside Delhi and ban on construction activities. When contacted, Jogi Ram Jain, the chairperson of the north corporation standing committee, said the civic body has deployed its maximum staff strength for pollution control this season. “I cannot say for sure about why the pendency of complaints is so high, but we have made dedicated teams that are on-ground even at night. They keep a watch on cases of open fires. During the day, our teams ensure that water sprinkling is done on all our roads and mechanical sweeping is also being regularly carried out,” Jain said. A senior PWD official said they were following the directions issued by the state government to control pollution at their construction sites. He said they were prioritising pollution-related complaints, and have given deadlines to their teams to ensure that they were resolved on time. “Pollution control is our priority. Even within the department we have fixed accountability so that complaints are resolved as soon as possible,” the official said. Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director (research and advocacy), Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), said, “Fixing responsible is a must when we are dealing with multiple agencies. The whole point of having a public redressal system is to ensure that action is taken against complaints and considering that most of your pollution related action is time sensitive, it is imperative that reviews are done.”

Odd-even vehicle system in Delhi? Environment Minister says possible, if pollution levels stay high

While the Delhi government has taken a slew of measures to tackle pollution, Gopal Rai, the capital's Minister for Environment, Forest and Wildlife Development, said that Delhi will decide on the next course of action depending on the state of air quality after the stipulated period New Delhi: New Delhi will consider restricting private vehicles to driving on alternate days from next week if severe air pollution continues to plague India's capital, its environment minister told Reuters on Thursday (November 18). As choking smog enveloped the city of 20 million people this month, its government initiated a clutch of measures such as shutting down schools, banning construction and garbage burning, allowing people to work from home, and launching various dust-control steps such as using fire trucks to spray water. "If air pollution levels stay high, we will look at new measures like the odd-even (vehicle) system," Gopal Rai, the capital's Minister for Environment, Forest and Wildlife Development, said in the interview. Under the odd-even system, private vehicles can be driven only on alternating days, depending on the last digit of their number plate. "We'll see if there's a need for a complete lockdown to tackle pollution. But these measures will not work if Delhi's neighbouring cities do not reciprocate," Rai said. More children are in hospital with breathing problems due to dangerously heavy smog in New Delhi, doctors warned on Wednesday, and the government shut five power stations and extended school closures to try to contain the crisis. Citing a new study by the Centre for Science and Environment research body, Rai said only 30% of pollutants in Delhi's air stem from the city itself, with the rest coming from the vast urban sprawl around it where tens of thousands of big and small industries operate. "Even if we take more measures in Delhi, air quality will not improve if our neighbouring states do not ensure that pollution levels come down in the cities that surround Delhi." Rai said the federal government should call a meeting of Delhi and the state governments of neighbouring Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh to prepare "a joint action plan" to deal with air pollution. "Once the joint action plan is ready, there should be an independent panel to monitor the progress on the ground."

Business as usual cannot clean Yamuna, says CSE

The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) on Thursday released a note on “What ails the Yamuna”. It also gave solutions to clean the river, including the need to reduce Delhi’s own water demand and build water harvesting systems for capturing rainwater for discharge in the lean season to maintain the flow of the river. The Yamuna is extremely polluted, and currently the levels of faecal coliform (microbes from human and animal excreta) in the river is beyond accepted levels at all points except Palla, where the river enters Delhi. At some points, the river pollution is as high as 760 times the accepted level, as per Government figures. “As per latest [2018] available estimates, Delhi has already spent over ₹1,500 crore for cleaning the river; this does not take into account the cost of the common effluent treatment plants that have been built in the city. This is possibly the highest amount spent on river cleaning in the country. But it has not worked, as is evident from the pollution data,” the CSE said. As per the note, Delhi has already built 17 sewage treatment plants (STPs), which together adds up to 40% of the total installed sewage treatment capacity in India. “But these plants remain grossly underutilised. The city does not have the drainage to convey all its excreta to the treatment plants,” the statement said. The CSE said that all Governments, including that of Delhi, are designing systems that people cannot pay for. “These are unaffordable systems to pipe water across long distances, which add to the cost of distribution and worse, increase water loss. Then, we design to take back the waste and pump it and pipe it even longer distances. Thus, there is a need to relearn the science and art of river cleaning. Business as usual will not result in a clean river,” it said.