Quality of Air in Delhi

Delhi choking, but do not blame stubble burning alone

• Worsening of the quality of air in Delhi. Several measures like Construction activities have been stopped.

Air pollution

• Increasingly polluted air is a hazard and a health crisis in the making, in fact, it is already one. 
• India now reports 2.5 million air pollution­related deaths annually. Pollution makes our throats and eyes burn and is much more insidious. Some pollutants are so small that they can enter the bloodstream easily, impacting almost every organ in the body and leading to the onset of health issues such as stroke, heart disease, respiratory diseases, and cancer, to name just a few serious health problems. It is not just about good air. It is about life.

Why is nothing changing?

• While a lot has been written and said about Delhi’s air quality, the question that still must be answered is this: why is nothing changing after all these years?

The same orders again

• A principal reason is that year after year, we are doing the same things to try and address the problem without trying to evaluate why those measures are not effective. 
• The Government formed the Commission for Air Quality Management, which, unfortunately, did not offer anything new. 
• This body essentially issued the same orders the Ministry and the Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority used to, with just a slight change in the language used. 
• Every year schools are closed, people are advised to stay indoors, or carpool and work from home, the ban on firecrackers is reinforced, construction is stopped, trucks and cars are not allowed to enter the city, and industries running on fuel shut. 
• These measures, and several others, are akin to dressing a bullet wound with a band-aid. Stopping people from going about their regular work is plain bad governance.

Why Delhi’s air is bad

• As the haze descends over Delhi, the blame game begins — with stubble burning in the neighbouring States being identified as the main culprit. However, the reality is that Delhi’s air is bad even when stubble is not being burnt. 
• The burning of biomass in and around Delhi, if audited properly, would be the same as stubble burning in other states. 
• Unfortunately, none of the bodies, be it the municipal body or the government’s Public Works Department, is willing to take responsibility for this or address and find a solution to the problem. 
• This is not to say that stubble burning is not a problem. Some solutions have been tried out over the years, but with little success. What is required is a fundamental shift in agricultural patterns, which needs someone to make a bold political call.
• Unless farmers are adequately compensated, the problem is unlikely to go away. The ‘Happy Seeder’­based solution has sadly not been a happy experience. 

Not Delhi-centric problem

• We need to acknowledge that the problem is not just Delhi-centric. For some strange reason, we all talk about the airshed approach but do not spend the rest of the year trying to solve the problem. Delhi chokes on its dust and industrial activities. 
• Who is ensuring compliance with the rules relating to handling construction and demolition waste?
• Delhi started with much enthusiasm about roadside greening and cover. But is anyone monitoring this? Everyone seems to be looking at the data of PNG in industry, but is anyone looking at the unauthorised industries, which are large emitters? 
• Vehicles are another source of pollution in the city and we need to introspect why, despite an expanding fleet of public transport, citizens who primarily use two-wheelers have not moved to use the public transport system — buses and the metro. 
• I feel the reasons for this include last-mile connectivity, the problem of crowding in buses and metros, and the inability to reach and navigate narrow lanes that two-wheelers can. The state of maintenance of buses could be another reason as well.

A NO-TO-SILO Functioning

• We must be creative and look beyond the measures that have already been tried and prove they are at best a short-term solution to a recurring, long-term problem. Even then a core issue that needs to be addressed is the governance system. 
• There needs to be a single entity that takes responsibility for air quality management. We cannot operate in silos where one system of governance is responsible for thinking, a second issues orders and a third is responsible for implementation. 
• Without an efficient system that works in a coordinated way, we will find ourselves to be in the same position years later.
• The reality also is that Delhi is not the sole offender. There are many other cities in India where safe levels of air quality are breached regularly. 
• Air quality is a problem on most days but becomes an issue around Deepavali and when stubble is burnt. 
• We need to take more comprehensive, long-term measures throughout the year and not just in the days and weeks when it begins to make news.