Battle of clean air
We need
a meticulous strategy based on sound scientific evidence and overall political
will
The
pollution level in the city of Delhi has reached alarming proportions over the
years and winter haze is a regular sight in northern India. In an effort to
clear the hazy skies, the government declared a public health emergency,
restricting car use, shutting primary schools and halting construction
projects. These measures could not solve the acute air quality crisis though it
certainly reduced peak pollution loads. However, these actions create awareness
among the middle class. People have realised that the severity of the problem
is increasing faster than the government's capacity to respond. In many areas
over the weekend, levels of the deadly particulate matter reached around 60
times the global safety threshold or the equivalent of smoking more than two
packs of cigarettes a day.
The
major cause of acute air pollution crisis in Delhi is attributed to its
geographical location. Delhi is practically a land-locked megacity with limited
avenues for the flushing of polluted air out of the city or its replacement with
air from relatively unpolluted marine regions. These critical features are
common in many growing non-coastal megacities. The problem of very poor
flushing out is further aggravated on account of unplanned urbanisation with
massive development of housing and commercial space within the core of these
cities without optimising urban function and spatial layout. During winters,
cold air moves down the Himalaya Mountains, settling over northern India's
Ganges Plain. This layer of cold air gets trapped beneath a layer of warmer
air. Since the cold air cannot rise above the warm air, pollution builds in the
cold air as long as the temperature inversion lasts. In contrast, those
megacities which are located close to coastlines benefit from sea breeze that
can exchange maritime and urban air on a diurnal cycle.
About
65 per cent of pollution is clearly attributed to rapid economic growth that
has resulted in an increase in motor vehicle, unplanned urbanisation,
industrial and agricultural activities. During November, smoke from upwind
agricultural burning combines with Delhi's year-round urban pollution — a toxic
mix of vehicle exhaust, industrial emissions, garbage burning in open and in
landfills and construction dust — caused an eye-watering smog. Fireworks from
Diwali celebrations further aggravate the city's air pollution crisis. One of
the most dangerous components of air pollution is fine particulate matter. This
fine pollution mainly comes from burning things: Coal in power plants, gasoline
in cars, chemicals in industrial processes or woody materials and whatever else
ignites during wildfires. The particles are too small for the eye to see — each
about 35 times smaller than a grain of fine beach sand — but in high
concentrations, they cast a haze in the sky. These particles can penetrate
deeply into the lungs causing serious health complications. People are exposed
to harmful particulate matter from industries, too but fires produce fine
particles into the air at a rate three times as high as levels noted in
emissions inventories at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, according to
a new study. According to estimates by the WHO (World Health Organisation),
ambient outdoor air pollution causes 1.3 million urban deaths worldwide each
year. Exposure to these particles is estimated to cause 12.4 lakh deaths aged
less than 70 in 2017 and 77 per cent of India's population is exposed to
outdoor air pollution across India.
The
impact of particulate matter on human health has been highlighted elaborately
but the effects of the fine particulates on plant matter remains neglected.
Tiny pores in the leaves, the stomata are the gatekeepers that regulate how
much water vapour is released to the atmosphere. Stomata also allow carbon
dioxide for photosynthetic production of energy-storing sugars. This causes a
dilemma for plants, between thirst and starvation. Closing the stomata saves
water but restricts the uptake of carbon dioxide or opening the pores allow
carbon dioxide to enter but at the cost of increased water loss. Plants have
adapted stomatal regulation to prevailing ambient conditions over evolutionary
timescales but particulate matter concentrations with toxic compounds were
generally much lower than they are today as advocated by the researchers.
In
recent past, severity of air pollution problem in metropolis and cities is
highlighted but the people living in rural areas are also badly suffering due
to trans-boundary movement of the pollutants originating from thermal power
plant, sponge iron, coal washeries, crop burning, households and others. But
this problem remains well hidden. The insufficient understanding of public
pro-environmental intentions and behaviours has become a barrier to
implementing appropriate regulations for air quality improvement.
The
regulatory agencies have stipulated a series of actions for almost all sectors
to control air pollution over the past decade. These actions include relocation
of polluting industries, introduction of improved emission norms for vehicles,
phasing out of lead from gasoline, reduction of sulphur in diesel and benzene
in gasoline, running the city public transport fleet on compressed natural gas
(CNG) and banning of 15-year old commercial vehicles in many areas. The
government has also implemented BSIV standards for vehicular technology and
fuel in Delhi and other metropolitan cities of India in 2010. Despite these
initiatives, data generated over the years reveal that air pollution levels are
still far above the permissible levels at many sites across India.
Most
importantly, the pollutants such as particularly polyaromatic hydrocarbon
(PAH), mercury, volatile organic carbon and benzene that are carcinogenic in
their effect were found in relatively higher amounts than the values reported
by regulatory authorities in many cities. Any decline in pollutant levels
observed in a particular year is mainly due to the influence of meteorological
factors particularly wind speed and rainfall.
Regulatory
authorities frame the rules/regulations/ permissible levels and serve notices
to noncompliant organisations but without any sincere thought given to their
implementation. Our political rulers or governments both in centre and states
ignore the gulf between permissible standards stipulated by the regulatory
authorities and controlling air pollution realities at their sources.
Regulatory
pressure compelled these industries to adopt the end-of-pipe treatment
technique to mitigate environmental pollution. The regulatory agencies inspect
the industries once or twice in a year but are unable to ensure consistent
control of pollution. It is not always feasible with limited experience
personnel to continuously monitor environmental performance over time. Reducing
this pollution problem needs environmental improvement at the micro-level, a
goal which has been stubbornly elusive in India. In this context, it is
pertinent to mention that Sustainable Development (SD) that is defined as
"development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the
ability of future generations to meet their own needs" cannot be
maintained to balance industrial growth and environment. To fulfil this
requirement, it is necessary to create changes in industrial production,
transportation system, agriculture activities, domestic consumption and solid
waste management through adoption of Cleaner production (CP) principles and
practices that could support economic and environmental benefits. Cost-effective
CP can improve material utilization and reduce energy consumption and waste
emission. The proper understanding of these benefits among the owners' of these
sectors could help them to invest in infrastructure, including clean
technologies and environmental capacity, fostering CP implementation.
Most
importantly, the CP concept must be pursued to reduce pollution intensity of
iron and steel, cement, chemical, petrochemical and other key industries with
the increase of green coverage, water area, ecological and clean-type
watersheds in these industrial premises. Also, city plans must be done based on
an airshed approach with a clear understanding of the topography and
meteorology that impact level of pollutant concentrations, not simply
cut-and-paste report by consultants based on spurious primary and secondary
data.
The
monetary quantification of the damages associated with pollution is a very
controversial issue due to technical, political and ethical issues.
Furthermore, the determination of environmental damages in monetary terms is
very difficult to achieve due to the difficulty in measuring the damage
generated by each source according to its spatial location, the difficulties to
monitor and enforce the environmental policies, the uncertainty associated with
the estimation of costs and benefits, the existence of previous distortions in
the markets and also, the political, distributive and financial costs required
to implement environmental regulations.
Sound
environmental policy guided by science can control air pollution and save
lives, money and ecosystems but at present, science faces scepticism because of
the paucity of facts and data that matter. The harmful emissions from various
sources to be curtailed must be validated by monitoring and evaluation,
pollution source apportionment and emission inventories, which are the most
important requisites in evaluating the success or failure of environmental
policies. It also contains comprehensive legal standards and strict
environmental law enforcement. Air quality work must be supported by economic
policies and coordination on air pollution prevention and control in the air
pollution crisis region.
Reliable
ambient air quality data is urgently needed to recalibrate strategies if they
are not working. At present, hourly assessments of concentrations of nitrogen
dioxide, sulphur dioxide, ozone and particles measuring less than 2.5 µ (PM2.5)
and less than 10 µ (PM 10) are being carried out by automatic analysers installed
at huge expense which will not serve any actual purpose because hourly data is
not properly used to calculate monthly averages and determine overall
concentration levels correlating meteorological influence that is most critical
factor in clear statistical terms on regular basis. Thereby, pollutant
concentrations that have changed i.e., the actual trend over the years with
reference to the meteorological condition cannot be brought to the public
domain. Moreover, adequacy and reliability of these real-time analysis data is
questionable if we compare this data with manual data.
Air
pollution problems must be addressed through collective and enforceable actions
based on sound scientific evidence of serious air quality issues across India.
These should include improved urban and transportation planning, improved fuel
standards and emission control (especially targeting vehicles, power generation
and industries that contribute significantly to air pollution).
In
addition to the government's efforts to develop a legal system using
technological tools or top-down approaches, public participation is also
essential to achieve sustainable development. A shift towards renewable energy
must be included in the plan to reduce dependency on fossil fuels as well as
provide clean energy to households to tackle air pollution problem and climate
change.
The
improvement in air quality cannot happen in a day. It needs an enormous
investment of time, resources, sound scientific evidence and overall political
will, not political blame games.
Most
importantly, before taking any action to tackle the pollution crisis, competent
authorities need to better understand the causes of pollution