
Skin-deep smog fight
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A boy walks in smog in New Delhi on Wednesday. (AFP) |
TT, New Delhi: The Union health ministry, reacting to persistent severe air pollution levels in the National Capital Region, on Wednesday asked the public to avoid outdoor activities, while environment analysts warned that such temporary measures do not address sources of pollution.
The health advisory, calling on people to avoid morning walks or any other strenuous outdoor activity and asking for children to be kept indoors, follows concerns that air pollution levels across the NCR have persisted high above safe limits over the past two days.
Pollution tracking authorities have labelled the air quality as "severe" or "hazardous" with sensors recording levels of tiny inhalable particulate matter sized 2.5microns (PM2.5) at 500 micrograms per cubic metre or higher at multiple locations across the region. The safe limit is 60.
The health ministry's advisory, echoing independent statements issued by doctors over the past two days, has also asked people to avoid areas with smoke and heavy dust, stop smoking tobacco indoors or outdoors, and to consume plenty of water and fluids.
People with asthma, chronic respiratory disease or heart ailments should take medications as advised by their physicians and people who experience breathing difficulty, severe cough, or palpitations should seek medical consultations.
The Central Pollution Control Board on Wednesday advised an environmental pollution control panel to consider additional measures given the air pollution emergency across the NCR.
Delhi lieutenant-governor Anil Baijal has ordered a temporary ban on all civil construction work in the capital and directed that trucks carrying only essential commodities would be allowed entry into the capital.
But environment trackers cautioned that staying indoors or shutting down schools to minimise exposure to air pollution are not long-term solutions and do not genuinely address the multiple sources of pollution - vehicular emissions, soot from crop stubble burning across northern states, construction and road dust and dirty fuels.
"Cities and administrators need to take bold decisions to reduce emissions - this will require political leadership," said Sunita Narain, director-general of the New Delhi-based non-government Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) that has long demanded higher investments in public transport and ban on pollution sources.
The CSE said the number of bus riders in the NCR had declined by an average of about 9 per cent every year since 2013 and attributed the trend to a fall in the numbers of buses through lack of replacement of old scrapped vehicles.
Delhi's Metro network has grown over the past decade, but it is difficult to access for people across many parts of the city and the NCR. "Not a single bus has been procured in Delhi over the past three years - but we need a massive augmentation of public transport," said Anumita Roychowdhury, CSE's executive director for research.
The Union environment ministry has over the past two years coordinated several meetings with Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, asking state authorities to find ways to curb the practice of farmers burning crop stubble. Soot from the stubble carried by winds is believed to be a major source of pollution over the NCR during November.
Enforcing the ban on burning crop stubble requires strong political leadership and commitment, the CSE said. An online business-to-business platform claimed on Wednesday that enquiries for air purifiers and anti-pollution masks had jumped several fold over the past two days, attributing the trend to the NCR's air quality.
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