ગુજરાતી
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PROGRESS
HIGHLIGHT: NATIONAL AIR QUALITY IMPROVEMENTS
2019 marked the launch of India’s first National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), marking a shift in India’s commitment to tackling air pollution. The NCAP aims to reduce PM2.5 and PM10 air pollution in 102 cities by 20-30% by 2024 compared to 2017 levels, by working directly with local governments to create more customized regulations and targets (Government of India, 2019). In July 2019, India additionally joined the UN’s Climate & Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) as the 65th member to collaborate with global leaders on air pollution solutions. While the long-term impacts of these activities are yet to be seen, India saw widespread improvements in PM 2.5 levels in 2019, compared to the year prior as a result of economic slowdown, favorable meteorological conditions, as well as more dedicated efforts towards cleaning the air.
Every city in India with PM2.5 data in 2018 and 2019, except for Nagpur1 , saw a decrease in PM2.5 levels in 2019. As a weighted average based on the available data, national air pollution decreased by a remarkable 20% from 2018 to 2019. Unfortunately these improvements may not be fully representative of the very recent but promising National Clean Air Programme and cleaner fuel Bharat VI introduction, but are rather more indicative of a slowing of the marketplace.
Despite improvements, India still faces serious air pollution challenges. India again heads this report’s ranking of annual PM2.5 levels by city with half of the 50 most polluted cities being in India. No Indian cities included in this report met the WHO target for annual pollution exposure (10ug/m3) during 2019. Additionally, the country still has a relatively limited air quality monitoring network given its population size, with many communities and highly populated cities without access to real-time information.
Suggesting that India and other countries need to take high pollution levels very seriously, the “2019 World Air Quality Report” says, worldwide ambient air pollution accounts for29% of all deaths and disease from lung cancer, 17% of all deaths and disease from acute lower respiratory infection, 24% of all deaths from stroke, 25% of all deaths and disease from ischaemic heart disease, and 43% of all deaths and disease from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
The capital city ranking by the report says that Delhi tops this ranking for the second year, with annual PM2.5 levels nearly 10 times the World Health Organisation (WHO) Air Quality target of 10µg/m³. Delhi was found to have PM2.5 level of 98.6, followed by Dhaka (Bangladesh) 83.3, Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia) 62.0, Kabul (Afghanistan) 58.8, Jakarta (Indonesia) 49.4, Kathmandu (Nepal) 48.0, Hanoi (Vietnam) 46.9, Manama (Bahrain) 46.8, Beijing (China) 42.3, and Tashkent (Uzbekistan) 41.2.
Among other Indian cities which were found to have a very high PM 2.5 level are Ghaziabad 110.2 , Noida 97.7, Gurugram 93.3, Greater Noida 91.3, Bandhwan 90.5, Lucknow 90.3, Muzaffarnagar 89.1, Baghpat 88.6, and Jind 85.6. The 15 top polluting cities from South Asia include four Pakistan cities — Gujranwala 105.3, Faisabad 104.6, Raiwind 92.2, and Lahore 89.5.
