The National Air Quality Index, coupled with supportive measures, can prove to be a refreshing step by the Narendra Modi-led NDA Government in combating air pollution. It now needs to be taken with seriousness
The National Air Quality Index launched on October 17 by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change may at the outset seem to many as a passive attempt to meet the growing challenge of air pollution in India. But the positive implications and import of this development can ensure a much higher degree of control on the spiralling levels of pollution.
The new index, launched as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Swachch Bharat Abhiyan, will provide one consolidated number after tracking eight pollutants and will use colour-coding to describe associated health impacts. This initiative has all the possibilities of being a success, as it puts the common man in the focus and endeavors to build awareness in the community on the growing menace of air pollution explained in simple terms.
The World Health Organisation has identified air pollution as a serious environmental health risk that killed about seven million people in 2012. Earlier this year, in May, the WHO released the findings of a study of 1,600 cities, amongst which New Delhi had the most polluted air with an annual average of 153 micrograms of small particulates, known as PM2.5, per cubic metre. In addition, 13 more highly polluted Indian cities found mention in the report.
Thanks largely to the insipid efforts of previous Governments, the air quality kept sliding as the authorities looked on. The new index strives to set the pace for the time to come in order to arrest the deteriorating air quality, with individual awareness as an effective measure to combat the problem. Previously, the air quality status used to be conveyed through voluminous data, making it difficult for people to understand particle names such as PM2.5 or PM10 but the new index provides the common citizen one colour, one number and one description so that he can understand what the level of air pollution is, in a simple manner.
In the strategy to effectively deal with pollution, the AQI plays a central role but it needs to be supported by additional measures in order to make it a successful initiative. The AQI is common- man-centric, hence the authorities must ensure it is designed and implemented in a manner that it is helpful for the community to understand the potential health risks associated with different air quality levels.This will be helpful particularly to seniors, parents of young children, and people suffering from heart or lung conditions, so that they are they able to use the AQI to assess the immediate risk air pollution poses and take the recommended steps to lessen that risk.
The data generated by the AQI will increase the awareness level among people, hence the Government must be prepared for enhanced levels of answerability to the community regarding the measures taken by it to combat rising pollution levels.
With the AQI as a bedrock, the Government can improve its accountability to the community and responsibility towards the environment. However, to ensure the accountability, a new regime of punitive measures may need implementation.
An example in this regard is China, which is struggling to maintain air quality standards by curtailing automotive and industrial emissions. The country has a tried and tested air quality index, but that by itself is not helping matters. China is now flexing its muscles in the cases of repeat offenders, by delivering exemplary penalties.
Recently, a new standard of enforcement was set when the environmental conservation authorities announced their biggest fine yet with a 300,000 yuan ($48,092) penalty for boiler maker Babcock & Wilcox Beijing. The company is a joint venture between Charlotte, North Carolina’s Babcock & Wilcox, which has been making boilers since the 1860s, and Beijing Boiler Works. The company was fined for repeatedly painting utility boilers in the open air without any protective measures for reducing the resultant air pollution.
Community awareness combined with renewed enforcement is becoming a trend across the world. In April this year in Oregon, United States, Intel was levied a fine of $143,000 — one of the largest air-quality penalties — for violating environmental laws by failing to disclose fluoride emissions at its Washington County computer-chip factories.
The MoEF will do well to take a leaf out of these developments and toughen its posture towards industrial entities that treat confirmation to environmental norms as mere formality and irritating paperwork. The AQI, coupled with supportive measures, can prove to be a refreshing step by the NDA Government in combating air pollution.