Declare a War on Air Pollution, and Learn from China and Singapore – Kulpati Prof PB Sharma
In 2013, Beijing was among the top 20 most polluted cities in the world, today it's nowhere to be found in the list of top 200 most polluted cities. When the majority of people in Delhi are breathing air at AQI level of 1000 and more, Beijing is breathing with AQI of as good as 37.
NEW DELHI: With 14 out of 15 most polluted cities in the world being in India, 5 of the worst polluted being the National Capital and satellite towns of Gurgaon, Faridabad, Noida and Gaziabad, mere declaration of Health Emergency is nothing more than lip service.
“We need to declare a war on air pollution and fight against the menace of Air Pollution with decisive measures, no matter how unpleasant these be as nothing more precious than human life that is at grave risk due to highest levels of Air Pollution in the world in India,” says Prof PB Sharma, eminent educationist currently Vice-Chancellor of Amity University Gurugram who is also the founder Vice-Chancellor DTU.
The latest UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report has categorically warned that unless global greenhouse gas emissions fall by 7.6 percent each year between 2020 and 2030, the world will miss the opportunity to get on track towards the 1.5 degrees Celsius temperature goal of the Paris Agreement.
UNEP’s annual Emissions Gap Report further says that even if all current unconditional commitments under the Paris Agreement are implemented, temperatures are expected to rise by 3.2 degrees Celsius bringing even wider-ranging and more destructive climate impacts.
It would make the global community wonder on the clean air action plan of India that aims at reductions in air pollution like reducing air pollution by 20 % by 2024, when we have air quality as bad as 20-30 times higher on average over the year compared to safe limit of 10 micrograms per cubic meter as prescribed by WHO !. *What we need is the Clean Air Program for India that would bring air pollution to the levels of 20% of what they are in 2019 and we need to achieve this goal by 2024*. As such there is a sense of urgency with which the chapter of cleaning the air in Delhi and NCR is to be prepared, says Prof Sharma who is a former Professor of IIT Delhi and the past President of Association of Indian Universities, AIU.
The policymakers in India are advised to learn from international experience, especially from China and Singapore who successfully waged a War on Air Pollution.
It may be worth recalling that Beijing the Capital of China was amongst the top 20 most polluted cities in the world in 2013, today it is out of the list of top 200 most polluted cities. When most parts of Delhi are breathing air as bad having AQI of 1000 and even more at times, Beijing is breathing with AQI of as good as 37.
As a way forward, Prof. Sharma suggests measures to wage a war on air pollution.
“We need to ensure zero tolerance on dust from construction and demolition and against burning of biomass and crop residues. We need to put institute mechanism in place to buy back the crop residue from farmers and get it converted to useful products such as briquettes, biofuel, partition boards, and false roof tiles etc.. And also we need to implement Effective Solid Waste Management in cities of India, especially in the megacities, convert waste into wealth through its conversion into electricity or bio-fertiliser,” says Prof. Sharma.
Take immediate steps to introduce EVs on roads of India in mega and metro cities and attain at least 20- 30 % EVs for passenger cars and SUVs on road by Dec 2020, and 100% EVs by 2024. It looks impossible but achievable if there is political will and industry push.
“Regular cleaning of roads in cities, making CEOs of MCDs responsible for enforcement, penalizing them for defaults, using CSR money for making industrial areas totally dust free and banning the use of high ash coal in coal-based thermal power plants, making coal washing more effective at pit head and mixing cleaned Indian coal with imported good quality coal while at the same time aggressively promoting solar every plants too are some of the ways out,” added Prof. Sharma.
Other measures suggested include drafting a new *Indian Clean Air Act* and inbuilt stringent measures and air quality standards at par with the WHO guidelines, implementing a massive plantation drive to create *tall and thick green walls* around Delhi and NCR towns to ward from dust coming from neighboring states and mounting a massive public campaign for creating the public awareness about ill-effects of Air Pollution and creating a sense of urgency to support clean air measures.
Amity University Gurugram has established an Air Pollution Control Centre and is seriously engaged in policy advocacy and evolving technology solutions to effectively combat air pollution.
“We cannot afford to sit and watch or be satisfied by short term emergent measures like odd-even as pollution is a major killer in India. Let the public along with government fight the war against air pollution as it makes a good business sense and also a good civic sense,” sums up Prof Sharma, Vice-Chancellor of Amity University Gurugram.
