Construction dust is a major cause of air pollution. States must crack down on this
A cursory read through asthma statistics at any major hospital across India would show that this, the most common pulmonary disease, is seeing cases rising fast, particularly among younger Indians. It is, therefore, not surprising to see children going to school armed not only with mobile phones but also nebulisers. And the biggest single cause for so many Indians having weak lungs is quite clearly the noxious levels of air pollutants, particularly in cities like Delhi, where a heady cocktail of poisonous gases from carbon monoxide, nitrous oxides, sulphur dioxide and so on are emitted from the tailpipes of millions of vehicles everyday. With no strict enforcement of pollution norms, motorcycles, cars and buses continue to spew gases willy-nilly but the Delhi Government has tried solutions such as the much-pilloried ‘odd-even’ scheme. The Supreme Court too banned the sale of firecrackers in the national capital in order to reduce the negative impact of poisonous gases released when they explode. But one major cause of air pollution, in fact, one of the leading causes of large and heavy particulate matter that continues in this city and also across the country with little or no checks is construction dust. All across the city, mounds of construction material lie strewn about. Some like iron rods are a threat to life for pedestrians and motorists alike but the sand, cement and bricks are a threat to life in other ways. Some builders even encourage stone cutting out on the road, thereby generating dust and noise. Badly stored construction material, particularly sand, is liable to create heavy particulate matter in the air when kicked up by the wind or when thrown up by the tires of vehicles passing over them. While there are norms for storing such materials, they are almost universally not followed by all but the largest contractors. The norms specify that building materials should be covered and not stored on the road, instead should be kept inside the site. But it isn’t just new building materials, the malba from demolished buildings and the mud extracted to build deep foundations are often dumped by unscrupulous contractors on roadsides at the middle of the night. Not only are these materials a menace as they lie around in the dry heat of the capital, they spread dust all over the city and into the lungs of the citizens.
As Delhi goes through an intense period of urban renewal and even though large projects tend to follow norms better than most, they are also generating huge amounts of dust. This is why municipal bodies in Delhi and the State Government’s Public Works Department have to go after contractors and house owners who willingly pollute the air just to save on the cost of a few sheets of tarpaulin. Strict enforcement of norms, whether it is in the posh colonies or unauthorised colonies, has to be ensured so that Delhi’s children are not made to suffer unbreathable air. Of course, this is just one of the many causes of Delhi’s air crisis but it is a cause that is not being addressed. This must change and fast.