As we asphyxiate on dangerously high levels of pollution, experts tell SHAlINI SAKSENA that Delhi is fatally choking and needs drastic emergency measures
The average readings of PM 10 and PM 2.5 on December 11, 2015, were 288.1 and 174.1 micrograms per cubic metre respectively. This alarming presence of toxins in the air triggered the demand of an immediate action plan — and in came Delhi Government’s odd-even plying of cars, for starters.
On any given day, Delhiites breathe air at a concentration of 153µg/m3 — three times the Beijing mean and 15 times the WHO guideline of 10µg/m3. The fumes from 88 lakh vehicles, diesel electricity generators and coal plants around Delhi have hit our lungs to such an extent that half of the 44 lakh children will never be able to recover fully.
More alarmingly, out of the 88 lakh vehicles registered, 56 lakh are two-wheelers, contributing 31 per cent of the pollution. According to the Delhi Statistical Handbook 2014, 32.44 lakh two-wheelers were registered in 2006-07; 49.62 lakh in 2012-13; in 2013-14, the figure touched 56 lakh. This means that around 6 lakh two-wheelers are being added on Delhi roads annually since 2010.
Not just the vehicles, last week, the Delhi Pollution Control Committee issued pollution notices to 38 top construction sites, including the Parliament House Annexe building and the additional building for the Supreme Court. Some of the other buildings in the list include Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College, Dwarka, Sec 3; Aloft Aerocity Hotel, expansion of Hindu College.
Sadly, the only solution doctors have for patients suffering from acute breathing problems is “leave the city”. Author of Tsunami on Roads, Wake Up India! Dr Sanjay Kulshrestha, who has filed several PIls with the National Green Tribunal (NGT), vehicular pollution is the worst killer of our respiratory system.
“There is no part which is immune to it. Air pollution is not only affecting paediatric and geriatric populations but also foetuses. Studies on pregnant women have shown that air pollution increases chances of birth defects, foetal growth retardation and premature delivery, especially in cases where residences are close to busy roads or within 500 metres of busy roads.
“About 55 per cent of Delhi’s population lives in that influence zone. According to the Capital’s birth rate (3.54 lakh per year), about 88,000 babies are affected by this vehicular pollution,” Kulshrestha says. The explosive growth of motorised vehicles in Delhi is a culprit. Till February 2014, there were 82 lakh vehicles on Delhi roads.
Vehicles added in each decade are as follows: 12.5 lakh (1980-90), 18 lakh (1990-2000) and 41 lakh (2000-2014). Compared to 1980, vehicles increased 16 times. “More than 50 per cent vehicles in the last 30 years came in the last decade. While in 1980, there were five lakh, today five lakh vehicles are being added annually. This means, nearly 1,400 new vehicles daily,” Kulshrestha points out.
He says that 95 per cent of the air pollution problem in Delhi is due to personal vehicles. The way to control the numbers is to increase parking charges — make them so high that people are forced to use public transport. Increase taxes, introduce congestion charges, as has been done by several other countries, and check the sale of private vehicles.
“Sadly, while it takes 25 departments to give clearance for an industry to set shop in the Capital, one can buy a vehicle off the showroom. We need to check the explosive increase in cars. The public can’t blame the Government for everything. The Government has a phased programme for introducing Euro-IV vehicular emission norms requiring an investment of Rs 55,000 crore by oil and automobile companies in improving fuel quality and vehicular engine specifications. But auto companies have delayed the implementation of these norms. Also, the road expansion is increasing at 2.9 per cent but the increase of vehicles nearly 15 per cent — more than 10 times the road expansion. It is time the public took some responsibility as well,” Kulshrestha says.
Personal cars on Delhi’s roads are five times more than the national average of two per cent. Fifteen per cent of 1.67 crore Delhiites have personal cars. The three top road traffic hazards directly related with this very high number of vehicles are: lagging road infrastructure leading to traffic jams/congestion; road accidents and air pollution.
With polluting industries being shifted out, air pollution is directly proportional to traffic. A Central Pollution Control Board and WHO study showed that in 2013, Delhi was worst hit by air pollution among all metro cities. A recent IIT Delhi study says that 7,350 to 16,200 premature deaths occur in Delhi every year due to air pollution along with 6 million asthma attacks.
A 2012 Delhi Government report says that an average of 23 people die in Delhi daily due to respiratory diseases emanating from deteriorated air quality, a number that has doubled in the past four years much like the increase of diesel vehicles. Diesel is extremely toxic. It is also the key reason why there are such high levels of particulate pollution.
Diesel is known to emit higher smoke, particles and NOx than petrol. According to WHO and other international regulatory agencies, diesel particulates are carcinogens. Even the clean diesel running on fuel with 350 ppm of sulphur, allows higher limits for NOx and particulate emissions as compared to petrol cars.
To tackle the situation, the National Green Tribunal has come up with a drastic step — to ban 15-year-old petrol private vehicles and 10-year-old diesel vehicles from plying in Delhi-NCR. While the move may sound drastic, experts say that it is a welcome step that should have been taken long back.
According to Anumita Roychoudhary, associate director general at the Centre for Science and Environment, what Delhi needs is urgent implementation of recommendations. “The time to speculate why the Government has not done anything is over. There is need to tighten PUC testing methods and compliance.
“Grossly polluting vehicles will have to be weeded out with a good inspection programme and smoky vehicle checks. Deploy more advanced in-use monitoring strategies. Integrate on-board diagnostic systems for inspection; introduce remote sensing technology. Make PUC certificate mandatory for obtaining annual insurance for vehicles,” Roychoudhary says. She also tells you that the focus should be on an action plan that includes pollution emergency action for smog episodes and short-and-medium-term measures for more lasting clean air standards.
Some recommendations by the CSE include: Implementing the Air Quality Index with health advisories and pollution emergency measures; leapfrog emissions standards to Euro V in 2017, and Euro VI in 2020. Nation-wide Euro IV should be in place by 2015; control dieselisation with tax measures. Diesel has been branded as class I carcinogen by WHO. Need for fiscal measures to keep clean fuels like CNG competitive vis-a-vis diesel; improve and scale up public transport and last mile connectivity - bring all the 11,000 buses within a year. Ensure reliable and frequent services, GPS enabled public information system, multi-modal integration for metro and bus, and last mile connectivity.
In 2000, the Supreme Court approved a report by Bhure lal who was the chairman of the Environment Pollution Prevention and Control Authority and a member of the Monitoring Committee on Sealing set up by the Supreme Court. The report recommended reduction of sulphur and nitrous oxide levels in the atmosphere.
“Some of the report’s recommendations were: To use lead-free fuel, to use more CNG in public transportation, to ensure all old vehicles and two-stroke engines are scrapped from the city, to encourage more public transportation, discourage private vehicles in central business districts, ban trucks from city roads, to implement strict parking norms and to ensure there are signal-free roads,” Dr Ojha an environmental consultant with Technogreen Environmental Solutions based in Pune, says.
Instead of following all the recommendations of the report, Delhi implemented only two — use lead-free fuel and CNG in public transport. Delhi would not be in its present situation had it implemented all the proposals.
There are social, legal and moral aspects to Delhi’s pollution. “The problem is that while water pollution and other pollutants are visible to the naked eye, air pollution can be only felt. This means that public’s concern over air quality is negligible. Public knowledge is limited. Not many doctors will tell you outright that any health-related problem is directly linked to air pollution,” Ojha says.
“There is need to approach the problem at many levels. Banning polluting vehicles is one way. Other means need conscious policy-making. The diesel retro fitment which cuts into consumption of fuel in existing diesel cars needs to be made affordable. Public transport needs to be improved. There is need for extensive political will and proactive approach of civic agencies as driving forces,” Ojha explains.
last year, the Environmental Preference Index ranked India 174 out of 178 countries for air quality. This year, in April, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched the National Air Quality Index to initially cover 10 cities. While the move was welcomed, experts say that the Government must devise ways to reduce air pollution levels in cities. While India has a low per capita emission of greenhouse gases, the country as a whole, is the third largest in this after China and the US. A 2013 study on non-smokers has found that Indians have 30 per cent lower lung function compared to Europeans. Some reports, including one by the WHO, claim around 4 lakh people die of indoor air pollution and carbon monoxide poisoning in India because of use of chullah. Air pollution is also the main cause of the Asian brown cloud, which is delaying the start of the monsoon.
Dr Gufran Beig, chief project scientist, System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, says that awareness among the people is on the rise. “Today, people want action to be taken because they have realised that air pollution is affecting them highly,” he says.
“Pollution is due to emissions of various natural as well as anthropogenic sources. From 2010 to 2014, the growth rate of emissions was highest in the transport sector. The major contributors in the windblown dust sector are suspended dust and open trash burning (especially in winter). Suspended dust emerges from paved/unpaved road and construction activities. A marginal increase by around five per cent is due to increase in traffic density/jams which, in turn, increase the dust as vehicles ply on unpaved roads. Some of the high emission hotspots are Rajiv Chowk, Sansad Bhawan, India Gate, Indira Gandhi International Airport, Okhla Industrial Area, Pragati Maidan, IP-estate, Janakpuri, Mehrauli and lakshmi Nagar,” Dr Beig tells you.
Though methods like using public transport, car pooling, low emission vehicles, walking or cycling short distances, not burning garbage, planting more trees, using less air conditioning, making use of solar energy and recycling are some ways to tackle air pollution, experts say that such measures will not make the toxins in the air disappear. Even if we stop using everything, it will take years to have air that is clean and healthy.
What Delhi needs are strict laws that are implemented on war-footing. For one, increase parking rates (to Rs 200 an hour) in popular market places. Make car-free zones — for instance middle and inner circle in Connaught Place. Make walking conducive. Have efficient last-mile connectivity so that more people use public transport. Make the purchase of the third car (for the same address) difficult by raising the road tax, insurance and other costs. Incentivise people using public transport. Ban entry of trucks into the city between 6 am and 11 pm. Introduce congestion charges for cars entering certain zones.
Recently, lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung formed a high-powered committee on air pollution which suggested ways to tackle air pollution in the city: Rs 1 cess on purchase of every pack of cigarettes and each bottle of liquor to create urban transport fund; traffic police to make display of pollution-under-control (PUC) sticker mandatory for all vehicles; regulate entry of non-destined vehicles into Delhi; new parking policy on the anvil-concept of premium parking for very congested areas; battery-operated vehicles for last-mile connectivity; eight coaches in all 129 Metro trains by 2017.
success stories
While Delhi is having a slugfest over the first pollution control measure, other metros across the globe have enforced several palatable & unpalatable measures to save their citizens from air pollution. PRAKRITI ROY lists some of them
AMERICA’S Clean Air Act calls for States and EPA to solve multiple air pollution problems through programmes based on modern technology. From 1970 to 2014, aggregate national emissions of the six common pollutants dropped an average of 69 per cent while gross domestic product grew by 238 per cent.
EUROPE enforced UN’s Convention on long-range Trans-boundary Air Pollution which is one of the oldest and most successful multilateral treaties protecting the environment with targets that have led parties to slash emissions of air pollutants drastically. For example, in the past 20 years sulphur dioxide emissions in Europe have plunged by more than 60 per cent
SINGAPORE’S Anti-Pollution Unit has successfully managed to negate the pollution caused due to intense industrialisation and transform the city into a clean and green garden city.
JAPAN’S Pollution Diet, 1970: Citizens’ movement fired the Government to pass four laws simultaneously. Pollution levels fell so drastically that today Japanese cities are among the least polluted in the world.
DUTCH iSPEX project, 2015 enlisted the public to contribute to the understanding of air pollution by distributing small sensors to smartphones to turn them into pollution measuring devices. Participating cities included Athens, Barcelona, Belgrade, Berlin, Copenhagen, london, Manchester, Milan, and Rome.
HONG KONG offers a subsidy equal to 30 per cent of the value of a new vehicle to those who replace their pre-Euro IV diesel commercial vehicles, as well as incentives to those who scrap their pre-Euro IV diesel commercial vehicles without replacing them.
lONDON being highly polluted, its city administration has pioneered the concept of a low Emission Zone for the city which encourages the use of electric vehicles by giving them recharging points and reducing parking charges for these vehicles Cycling and walking infrastructure is in place. Besides, ‘switch off engine' signs have been set up in coach parking bays. Of course morning to night odd-even car policy in central zones and a high congestion tax are the highlights.