Delhi Winter Pollution: Environment Ministry Launches 'Clean Air Campaign'

The skyline of the national capital and neighbouring areas is engulfed in smog and dust particles making it difficult to breathe. To counter this, an aggressive ten-day-long 'Clean Air Campaign' from November 1 to 10 has been launched by Union Environment Ministry to monitor and report polluting activities as well as to ensure quick action. A total penalty of Rs 80 lakh was imposed on violators by the teams deployed to monitor implementation of measures to combat pollution in the Delhi NCR under the Clean Air Campaign.

As per reports, India has also signed a deal with global agencies - World Bank, German development agency (GIZ) , the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Bloomberg Philanthropies that would help Indian states combat air pollution.

Early this month, North and South Delhi municipal corporations had intensified action to check pollution level in the city and imposed a total of Rs 30 lakh in penalty for violations. The building department of various zones also inspected areas for construction activities causing dust pollution, and garbage or leaves burning. During this exercise, zonal authorities of south MCD issued a total of 435 challans worth about Rs 22 lakh for violations while north MCD collected Rs 8 lakh for violations. 

Earlier, the Supreme Court-appointed Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA) had accepted a recommendation from the Central Pollution Control Board to ban all construction work and operations of hot mix plants and stone crushers in Delhi-NCR region between November 1 and 10, a period that experts have forecast to be polluted. Air quality in Delhi NCR is expected to enter unhealthy levels from November 1 and possibly turn hazardous over the remaining month – an occurrence that has become an annual affair over recent years. 

Plans to tackle the pollution monster are aplenty, but, not much has improved in the past. However, this year, the situation might be better as the CPCB is planning to bring three innovations to fight the winter pollution.

Since the primary pollutants in Delhi’s air are PM10 and PM2.5, the methods will be aimed at reducing particulate matter only. These have been funded with the money collected as the environment protection charge from polluting vehicles, summing around Rs 43 crore. With the failure of ‘anti-smog guns’, gear up to find these machines in the national capital.

These are the air filters that will be fitted on the roof of any kind of vehicles including auto-rickshaws and two-wheelers. The air will pass through the holes from the front and the filters installed inside will trap the pollutant, pushing the clean air out of the device. Almost 30 devices will be fitted on the roofs of the buses on a pilot basis. The devices can clean up to 98 per cent of the particulate matter from the air.

Developed by IIT Bombay and National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, the Wind Augmentation and Air Purifying Unit (WAYU) cleans air in three ways- removing particulate matter, breaking down of toxic pollutants such as carbon monoxide and organic compounds into carbon dioxide, creating turbulence in the air, hence dispersing other pollutants. These units will be placed at five traffic intersections- ITO, Anand Vihar, Shadipur, Bhikaji Cama and Wazirpur. These devices will be an advanced version of those used in Mumbai and can clean up to 90 per cent of the pollutants.

Since construction dust is one of the major contributors to deteriorating air quality, now magnesium chloride will be added to cement to suppress dust. These techniques will be used at multiple construction sites across Delhi. The dust suppressants will be effective for at least 8-10 hours. 

Locality-specific plans to handle situation better

CPCB has asked all government agencies in Delhi, including the police and civic bodies, to prepare locality specific plans that will contain details of local sources of air pollution, measures to be taken to control them, and how these steps would be implemented. The civic agencies have also been asked to submit the plan by September 15. It should also include list of places where maximum violations take place, how many units would be posted in the field to implement the measures, how many mechanical sweepers would be pressed into service, and which roads were most dusty among others.