A pan-India rather than an island effort must be made to tackle pollution at every level
We have been choked and no amount of wringing hands and flailing limbs can save us. Delhi’s air quality has gone into the “severe plus category” as PM 2.5 reached 383 ug/m3, the highest in the season which is equivalent to 500 plus on the AQI. Also, the contribution of stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana to Delhi’s pollution rose to 46 per cent on Friday, the highest this year. Delhi is just a litmus test for the rest of India and the focus on it dilutes the fact that most North Indian cities are in the most polluted global watchlist. So we need to declare a countrywide war on air pollution and everyone, right from the citizens, to India Inc, to politicians, bureaucrats and the Centre and State Governments need to get on board unitedly to tackle it. Yes, Delhi has a better response plan with the ban on all construction activities, coal-based plants, diesel generator sets, crackers and vehicle rationing. But this is just a knee-jerk reaction and not an annual drill of compliance that the country needs to follow in right earnest. A spell of rains and an improvement in air quality index in Delhi could easily lull us with a false sense of conquest in a battle when the war is actually raging on multiple fronts, in emergent cities in the middle of an infrastructural overhaul. Compliance is a major problem as people refuse to change behavioural patterns. Nor do enforcement agencies on the ground do their job judiciously and consistently. Construction companies do not suppress dust as required by setting up barriers, covering debris or sprinkling building materials with water for storage and transport. We can’t stop stubble burning till the alternative use makes economic sense to farmers. What of vehicle emissions test centres issuing fraudulent compliance certificates? Uncontrolled fires at landfills are a major menace in the absence of proper waste management. It’s not that we do not have environmental laws but till we make their violations strictly and stridently punishable, there can be no respite.
On the policy front, the country’s air quality management system needs to be supported by monitoring and evaluation, pollution source apportionment and emission inventories. For instance, even though the country’s share of renewable energy in installed power capacity has more than doubled in 10 years to a fifth, the fact remains that the share of coal and gas-fired power plants has not gone down and remained constant at two-thirds. This needs to be addressed too. Air quality work will have to be supported by economic policies, public participation and coordination on air pollution prevention and control. And this will have to be pan-India and a year-long effort with a deadline.