Had the Govt paid attention to this IIT study in Jan, Delhiites wouldn’t have been gasping for breath today

An IIT study provided to the Delhi government by IIT Kanpur in the beginning of this year had identified the factors that caused pollution. It even offered steps to tackle it.

The Comprehensive Study on Air Pollution and Green House Gases in Delhi had cautioned that Delhi had a complex urban environment with respect to air pollution and faced severe air pollution of PM10, PM2.5 and NO2.

“The winter sources (% contribution given in parenthesis for PM10 - PM2.5) include: secondary particles (25 - 30%), vehicles (20 - 25%), biomass burning (17 – 26%), MSW (municipal solid waste) burning (9 - 8%) and to a lesser extent soil and road dust. It is noteworthy, in winter; major sources for PM10 and PM2.5 are generally the same,” cited the study.

It called for “an integrated pollution control approach in the region” to help improve the air quality. The study said that although sources contributing to summer and winter air pollution are different but the overall action plan should include control of all sources regardless of season. It warned that air polluting sources were plenty and efforts were required for every sector/source. “In addition, there is a need to explore various options for controlling air pollutants for increased emission in future,” it said.

Ban on MSW
The study noted that burning of Municipal Solid Waste is wide spread in Delhi and NCR, and it is more frequent in winter. “A recent study by Nagpure et al. (2015) in Delhi has estimated 190 to 246 tons/day of MSW burning. The presence of chloride in the ambient air indicates that along with MSW, plastics and tyres burning could also be taking place in some areas. The estimated emissions are: 2000 kg/d of PM10 and about 1800 kg/d of PM2.5. MSW burning contributes to nearly 10% of PM10 and PM2.5 in ambient air in winters.”

Stop garbage burning
It added that any form of garbage burning should be strictly stopped and monitored for its compliance. It will require development of infrastructure (including access to remote and congested areas) for effective collection of MSW and disposal at landfill site. The other viable option due to space constraint is to use Waste to Energy technology with effective flue gas control system to dispose MSW. The study suggested a complete ban on MSW on the basis that it could bring the emissions from this source to zero this could lead to an improvement of 5-10 percent in air quality.

Curb pollution from diesel vehicles
The study also pointed out that vehicle emission and their contribution to ambient air concentration is significant to PM10 and PM2.5 both in winter and summer. “In winter, on average vehicles can contribute 25% to PM2.5 and at certain locations this contribution could be above 35%. In summer, vehicular contribution is masked by other prominent sources. There is a significant contribution of diesel vehicles to PM10, PM2.5 and NOx”. Therefore, control measures have focused on advanced technological intervention for diesel vehicles.

Make city 100% LPG fueled
Although Delhi is kerosene free and 90% of the households use LPG for cooking, the remaining 10% uses wood, crop residue, cow dung, and coal for cooking. The study said that “LPG should be made available to remaining 10% households to make the city 100% LPG-fueled. This action is expected to reduce 55% of PM10 (3270 kg/d), 50% of PM2.5 (2829 kg/d) and 4% of NOx (635 kg/d) emissions from domestic sector. This reduction in emission will reduce the ambient air concentration by 4.4 µg/m3 and 3.6 µg/m3 in PM10 and PM2.5 respectively”.

Had the government begun acting even on some of these measures proactively, experts and environmentalists say -"We could have averted the crisis. Diwali may have got up pollution levels but not to the level where humans would feel choked."