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Even by Delhi’s toxic standards, the thick plumes of grey shrouding the city, obscuring anything beyond a couple of meters is appalling.
On the afternoon of 9 November, the National Capital was smothered in smog so thick that it could be sliced with a knife. The levels of the cancer-causing particulate matter (PM 2.5), which are absorbed deep into the lungs, rose to above 999 – basically going off the charts. According to the World Health Organization, levels over 300 are ‘hazardous’.
On the afternoon of 9 November, Beijing, which is also breathing uneasy in the winter smog, noted a PM 2.5 reading of ‘unhealthy’ 151, 10 times better than the National Capital.
New Delhi and Beijing share the dubious distinction of being the world’s most polluted megapolises but their response to the crisis is what sets them apart.
According to the World Health Organization, India has maximum deaths from asthma in the world and our lungs are the weakest even among non-smokers in a survey of 17 countries. The Yamuna is bubbling with toxic fumes, it stinks of chemical sewage and human feces.
The air pollution is directly responsible for 3000 premature deaths in Delhi every year. That’s 8 deaths per day according to the Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA). Perhaps the most appalling is how it affects children – 40 percent of school going children in Delhi have compromised lung capacity.
And yet, year after year politicians bicker as Delhi chokes.
The Union Health Ministry sprung into belated action by issuing a mundane advisory:
The state government has blamed neighbouring Punjab and Haryana for stubble burning, shut down schools temporarily and the entry of trucks into the city while it debates on further actions.
China, on the other hand, stopped hiding behind the euphemism of ‘heavy fog’, publicly acknowledging pollution as an environmental and health catastrophe after the tipping point of 2008 Olympic Games.
China’s capital is not in the clear yet, but for the first time since 2008, that’s when their government started monitoring air pollution data, Greenpeace has recorded a 15 percent annual fall in the concentration of the most deadly air pollutant, PM 2.5.
Beijing, like New Delhi, has a smog problem compounded by vehicles, construction, industries, aggravated by geography and sickened by weather.
China stopped living in denial and hiding behind the deadly air blanket over its cities.
It got a mechanism in place – a 7.5 trillion rupees action plan to combat pollution, a four-point alert system for toxic haze, red alerts for days when pollution breaches the hazardous category of 300 for three consecutive days.
In this period, schools, factories, construction sites, vehicles, highways, a few thermal plants come to a grinding halt till the smog lifts.
The cost of disobedience in China is severe. If a factory flouts emission rules for ten days, the penalty is ten times higher and citizens are empowered enough to check emissions of any industrial plant and report violators via social media.
Perhaps when citizens start ringing the alarm bells and not just rant on twitter with ‘smog selfies’, growing public anger can indeed push our government to combat pollution on priority.
In authoritarian China, leaders in Beijing judge those in the provinces by their progress on economic, health and environmental fronts. Tonny Xie, the Director of Secretariat at the Clean Air Alliance of China, quoted in a South China Morning Post article, says that under the newer system of governance, dust-billowing toxic black haze can shape political careers.
There are many steps which policy makers can take to get Delhi’s blue skies back, being particular about particulates on war-footing is just one of them.
(Breathe In, Breathe Out: Are you finding it tough to breathe polluted air? Join hands with FIT in partnership with #MyRightToBreathe to find a solution to pollution. Send in your suggestions to fit@thequint.com or WhatsApp @ +919999008335)
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Published: 10 Nov 2017,03:04 PM IST