Stringent steps, public awareness can solve India's air pollution problem: Experts

By Ahmad Adil

NEW DELHI (AA) - India, which is battling a serious air pollution problem, needs stringent policies and more steps to reduce anthropogenic emissions to provide clean air to its population, experts and environmentalists told Anadolu Agency.

Over the years, as India struggles to minimize its air pollution, several studies have said it is taking a huge toll on the health of the people in the south Asian country.

Coinciding with the International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies on Wednesday, India's environment expert Suman Mor, told Anadolu Agency that globally, air pollution is the greatest environmental health threat, causing premature deaths and disease.

The situation in India is "deteriorating as a result of the improvement in living standards, which has led to an increase in emissions from waste, transportation, and industrial facilities."

She said despite the federal government starting several steps to minimize air pollution around the national capital of New Delhi, the yearly average air quality in the city continues to be two to three times higher than prescribed levels.

Greenpeace, a global environmental group, March, said the 2021 World Air Quality Report for the fourth consecutive year found New Delhi as the most polluted capital city in the world.

Last year, it said researchers estimated that 57,000 premature deaths in Delhi in 2020 can be attributed to air pollution exposure.

"While the current steps are excellent, stronger, more consistent, and more persistent implementation is essential to ensuring Delhi's air quality," said Mor. "People have a crucial role in supplying social capital and enabling successful solutions in large cities such as Delhi."
Mor who is chairperson at the Department of Environment Studies in the northern India-based Panjab University said sources of air pollution should be eradicated comprehensively, focusing not just on megacities like Delhi but also on other cities.

"This will necessitate not only short- and long-term planning, but also systematic execution,” she said. “Cities with a healthy environment and culture should be rewarded, while others should be penalized. Air pollution education is also needed to raise public awareness.”

"This should be better demonstrated via geographically-spread health risk studies. Intersectoral coordination should be promoted to act effectively on pollution control measures."

-Bring law

Indian pulmonologist Digambar Behera told Anadolu Agency that there is a need to bring stringent laws and ensure proper implementation to curb the air pollution problem which is severe in the country.

"So not only outdoor air pollution, the need of the hour is to focus on indoor pollution as well. To control air pollution we must minimize the pollution emanating from factories, vehicles, and also stubble burning," he said, citing that several studies have pointed out how pollution is affecting the health of the citizens.

In May, a study by the Lancet Planetary Health journal revealed that pollution resulted in more than 2.3 million premature deaths in India in 2019.

Air pollution is reducing the life expectancy of Indians by as much as five years, according to the Air Quality Life Index (AQLI) produced by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago.

Gufran Beig, founder and project director of India's state-run System of Air Quality Weather Forecasting and Research (Safar) said a collective effort at the federal level is needed.

"The long-term and the only solution is that we should have a collective effort to minimize the anthropogenic emissions because air pollution does not see the boundaries and it goes high and low based on the geography and topography of a city," he said. "We need a unified effort to reduce the anthropogenic emissions from all the sources which are the major reason for the deterioration of air quality."

He said the air pollution issue in India is not in a good condition.

"Though some cities are showing some reduction the pace is very slow. We need to accelerate that efforts to yield better dividends," he said.

"The federal government launched the National Clean Air Programme in 2019 as a long-term, time-bound, national level strategy to tackle the air pollution problem across the country in a comprehensive manner. Hence, this excellent initiative needs to be strengthened," she said. "Inadequate urban planning is the cause of air pollution, and different ministries and stakeholders must work to find a solution. This cooperation is not readily discernible in the policy."

-Curbing pollution

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change recently informed parliament that it identified 132 non-attainment cities based on ambient air quality levels exceeding national ambient air quality standards for five consecutive years.

It said city-specific clean air action plans have been prepared and rolled out under national clean air programs for implementation in 132 non-attainment cities and million-plus cities.