Over 27 million people who live in and around Delhi are susceptible to a variety of health problems caused by this pollutant. 700,000 migrants move to Delhi every year. By 2028, Delhi will be the world’s most populated mega-city, putting even more residents at risk. Air Quality Index (AQI) is the standard measure for air pollution. On one day last month, the AQI of New York was a healthy 5.2. Beijing – infamous for its smog – was at 31. New Delhi’s AQI was an alarming 122 and was rated ‘Very Poor’ through most of November. The number of ‘very unhealthy’ days in terms of air pollution in Delhi rose from 66 in 2015 to 84 in 2017. There was a time last year when even breathing outdoors was equivalent to smoking 44 cigarettes a day! So what are the solutions?
Measurement
Cities across the world have harnessed existing technologies like sensors, cameras and GPS to collect air pollution data and made it available to citizens. The Array of Things is a citywide network of lamppost-mounted sensors in Chicago, which measures environmental factors like light, vibration, and temperature, creating a city-map of air quality at ground level. It will also track the levels of poisonous gases carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide, helping city planners intervene to improve air quality.
Pittsburgh’s Breathe Project employs four panoramic cameras to provide real-time aerial views of Pittsburgh, allowing citizens to zoom in on specific sources of pollution, use software to quantify the emissions, record evidence and monitor emissions over time. The city of Louisville uses GPS devices embedded in inhalers used by asthma patients to collect data on in which areas and and how often do people with asthma suffer aggravated symptoms. Authorities are using this data to identify hotspots of poor air quality. This has the added advantage of providing a personalised analysis of inhaler use to both patients and their doctors.
Policy Changes
India released the first draft of its National Clean Air Programme in April this year. The final plan is yet to be made public and is ineffective; it does not include time-bound targets to improve air quality, contains no directives for industries that contribute most to air pollution, and delineates no specific plans for intervention.
In contrast, China – which found itself facing air pollution levels far worse than ours – recognised that it had a problem early on and started its clean air program in 2013 with a target of cutting pollution levels by 30%. It is already implementing its second plan, with region-wise targets that hold authorities accountable for achieving them, strong emission standards comparable to those in Europe and the US, and rigorous enforcement of the rules. China is also investing heavily in renewable sources of power like wind and solar energy, to reduce dependence on and emission from coal-burning or gas-guzzling thermal power plants.
Car ownership in India is expected to increase by a whopping 775% by 2040. More cars equal more noxious fumes; a classic example of the citizenry shooting itself in the leg. The Delhi Government’s odd-even scheme to reduce the number of cars on the road each day made a big dent in improving the city’s air quality but was unpopular with many citizens who were too habituated to drive to work. Chinese officials have demanded that all future gas- and diesel-powered vehicles have better mileage.
India’s Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana is working to electrify every home in the country. India’s electricity need – over half of which is currently fuelled by coal – is only set to rise. At this critical juncture, it is imperative that the government incentivises renewable sources of energy over all others. Its target of achieving 100 GW of solar power by 2022 is a commendable step in this direction.
China has already announced the closure or cancellation of 103 coal-burning plants. Unfortunately, India’s Central Pollution Control Board has postponed the enforcement of stricter pollution control norms for coal plants to 2022.
Interventions
Last month, all of Delhi’s hopes were pinned on a single aircraft belongs to ISRO; its plan to seed clouds using this aircraft for creating artificial rain that would remove particulate matter from the air was foiled by the fact that the same plane had to ferry pilots involved in the launch of Chandrayaan-II! Solutions for combating air pollution can be very esoteric; the cloud seeding plan required permissions from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, the Ministry of Defence, the Indian Air Force headquarters, and the Intelligence Bureau. It didn’t help that on D-Day, there were no clouds to be seeded in the Delhi sky.
One of the simplest solutions advocates a return to a pre-industrial measure: planting trees in cities. Trees can remove as much as 24% of all particulate matter from the atmosphere. In a study involving several cities, researchers found that if all the people living in them spent 250-300 rupees a year on planting trees, almost 36,000 lives could be saved each year.
London’s urban forests provide annual benefits of at least £133 million by removing air pollutants and sequestering carbon. They capture over 2,200 tonnes of air pollution and remove the equivalent of 13% of PM10 from the city air.
The concentration of certain air pollutants can be reduced substantially by just a single tree. Ground-level nitrous oxide can be cut by 15-20% in the vicinity of just one tree. Trees reduce pedestrian-height pollution by up to 7%. Delhi doesn’t need a forest, it just needs to plant and protect more trees!
Trees also help increase wind turbulence, which helps disperse harmful air pollutants. This makes pedestrians and cyclists less susceptible to exposure.
Giant industrial air filters have begun to appear in cities worldwide, such as the Smog Free Tower in Beijing and the CityTree in Paris. An Indian inventor is working on a 20-foot cylindrical tower that will separate pollutants from air in a five-phase process. Unlike household air purifiers which need to be replaced every day, this system will contain to two massive tanks for collecting dust and carbon particles and will need to be emptied only every two weeks. This collected carbon, which is also present in vehicular exhaust fumes, can be used to manufacture ink. Not only is reducing emissions environment-friendly, it can also be economically profitable.
Some Chinese cities have planned for residential and commercial tower blocks that will be covered in greenery from top to bottom. These vertical forests will help protect its residents and workers from surrounding pollution by proactively absorbing carbon and other particulate matter.
City after city has recognised the importance of improving public transport in reducing emissions. As many more urban areas come under the network of Bus Rapid Transport Systems, it is vital that all new buses are electric or at least hybrid, protecting the air quality along their routes.
Barcelona has reduced its traffic congestion – and consequently, its emissions – by implementing a scheme in which traffic flow is changed by introducing signage that directs cars straight back out of the city as soon as they have driven in. A simple, elegant plan that requires minimal investment, or changes in the city’s infrastructure.
China’s turnaround of its terrible air quality is the result of aggrieved citizens recognising the problem and asserting their right to clean air. Anyone with a smartphone can now check local air quality in real-time, determine whether a particular source of emissions is violating pollution norms, and report it to the local enforcement agencies, which promptly crack down upon the culprit. Indians needs to follow suit in demanding the right to breathe clean air by making pollution an election issue; only then will we see the sweeping changes that can restore our air to a quality that supports life.