COMMENTARY (Chhabra et al 2001; Pande et al 2002, Air Pollution in Delhi 2004, 2010; Balakrishnan et al 2011). Figure 1 raises more questions than it answers. Between 2001 and 2005, the Sarath Guttikunda PM annual average 10 pollution dropped slightly, but has since risen more than As India’s capital, Delhi has uring the Budget Session of the 2.5 times. In 2010, the annual ambient PM grown across sectors – industry, Rajya Sabha, Janardhan Wagh- 10 concentrations averaged 260 µg/ 3 transport, and housing – which Dmare addressed Question No 1417 m , which is four times more than the to the Ministry of Environment and national annual standard and 13 times contribute to an increase in air Forests (MoEF), requesting infor mation more than the guidelines stipulated by pollution. This, in turn, has on the current status of air quality in the World Health Organisation (WHO). increased health risks, which are Delhi and seeking data about the after- Pollution levels are worse in the winter refl ected in a rise in respiratory math of mass introduction of com- months with concentrations at least pressed natural gas (CNG) for the public double the annual averages, due to ailments. While the benefi ts and private vehicles on air quality in increased emissions from heating, and of some interventions in the the capital. meteorological conditions (Guttikunda transport sector have been In response, the MoEF minister, Jayanthi and Gurjar 2011). In December 2011, the Natarajan, presented a list of acti vities daily average PM was 368 ± 116 µg/m3 apparent, it is time to focus on 10 and programmes conducted by her at four stations in Delhi (Figure 2, p 25). low-hanging fruit in other sectors ministry for monitoring and regulating Even if the CNG introduction has been in order to improve air quality air pollution in the cities of India and a successful intervention as far as re- and public health in the city. in the annexure provided the annual ducing pollution from the transport SO averages of sulphur dioxide ( 2), sector is concerned, it accounts for at nitrogen oxides (NO ) and x Figure 1: Annual Average Ambient PM Concentrations in Delhi parti culate matter (PM ) 10 10 300 pollution measured at nine 3 Annual average from nine stations 250 National annual ambient standard (60) stations in Delhi (Figure g/m μ WHO guideline (20) 1). Her response highlight- 200 ed the fact that the contri- bution of the transport 150 PM sector to 10 pollution in 100 Concentrations in 10 Delhi was bet ween 9-21% PM 50 of the total. The PM refers to all the 0 10 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 particulate matter less than 10 micron-meter aerodynamic diameter, most a fi fth of the pol lution in Delhi. Sarath Guttikunda ([email protected]) with the highest propensity to penetrate Hence, this begs the questions – are we is a project scientist at the Indian Institute human lungs and result in aggregated asking the right questions to address the of Technology, New Delhi and co-director of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases seriousness of deteriorating air quality UrbanEmissions.info and, in some cases, premature death in Delhi? Is there something else we 24 June 30, 2012 vol xlvii nos 26 & 27 EPW Economic & Political Weekly COMMENTARY Figure 2: Daily Average Ambient PM Concentrations in Delhi 10 contains most of the kilns (approxi- 700 mately 60%). 600 Daily average in December 2011 Brick manufacturing in northern India is dominated by small individual opera- 500 Average for December 2011 tors, each consisting of 200 to 300 daily 3 National daily ambient standard (100) wage workers per kiln, employed on a g/m 400 μ seasonal basis (Gupta 2003). Most of the 300 installations are conventional fi xed-chim- ney bull-trench kilns that are more pollut- 200 ing and energy-ineffi cient as compared to Concentrations in 10 the newer, cleaner technologies, like the 100 PM Hoffmann, high draught or vertical shaft brick kilns (CAI-Asia 2008; World Bank 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 2010). Similar kilns are found in most should be focusing on to improve air 2000s and thus the respiratory health for parts of northern India, along the Indo- quality in Delhi? the citizens of Delhi, they nevertheless Gangetic plain as well as around the cities have fallen short in keeping up with the of Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad in What Happened? daunting challenges posed by the grow- south India (Isabelle et al 2007). Over the past decade, a number of initia- ing sources of air pollution. The benefi ts The urban clusters of small-scale tives were introduced to address the of leapfrogging to alternative fuels like manufacturers, such as leather tanner- city’s pollution problem. These included, CNG is outdone by the increasing number ies, brick kilns, smelters, and metal- among others: of passenger vehicles on the road, lack of working shops account for a large por- The largest-ever CNG switch for more enough public transport buses, the in- tion of pollution in Delhi. Moreover, it is than 1,00,000 vehicles (buses, three crease in freight movement and con- easier to inspect and maintain 1,000 wheelers, and taxis). In the early 2000s struction material and debris by trucks brick kilns or 6,000 other industries, this resulted in some decrease in PM passing through the city, the lack of main- compared to the six million vehicles pollution, with the largest improvement tenance of trucks and buses, growing plying on the roads. While relocation coming from retrofi tting about 3,000 demand for electricity Figure 3: Study Domain over the National Capital Region of Delhi diesel buses (DTE 2002; Kathuria 2005; leading to the use of in- 29.0 Kumar and Foster 2007; Chelani and situ generator sets, and Devotta 2007). indus trial growth. Before the 2010 Commonwealth 28.9 Games, a large part of the retrofi tted What Is Next? fl eet was replaced with newer CNG buses A brief landscape of ac- 28.8 and the fl eet size increased to about tivities that contribute to Rohini 5,000; special transport corridors were air pollution in the capi- 28.7 introduced during the Games, which are tal region is described PP - gas based to serve as a pilot for future bus rapid in this section. Under- 28.6 Dwarka NOIDA transport applications. standing this is the fi rst PP - Dadri South Delhi 28.5 The city also benefi ted from the com- step towards identifying Gurgaon Greater Noida pletion of the Metro Phase-II, increasing the low-hanging fruit, in PP - Badarpur the coverage from 65 km in Phase I to terms of interventions, 28.4 Faridabad 180 km, including an express line from that could help reduce 28.3 PP - Faridabad the city-centre to the international air pollution in Delhi. Satellite cities PP = power plants airport. This resulted in some drop in The construction sec- Brick kilns on-road vehicle density towards the sat- tor is rapidly growing in 28.2 76.9 77.0 77.1 77.2 77.3 77.4 77.5 77.6 ellite cities of Gurgaon and Noida. India. This includes brick Conversion of coal-based thermal and cement manufacturing. In the case of industries proved benefi cial in the power plants within Delhi to gas-based of Delhi, the brick kilns are located just past, with the growing population and power plants (SoE-Delhi, 2010) and relo- outside the city limits, mostly along the city size, a more promising approach cation of the coal and fuel oil-based in- border. The dots in Figure 3 show the would be to introduce emerging tech- dustries, including brick kilns, to the location of about 1,000 kilns, with a pro- nologies that reduce the emission rates city outskirts, following Supreme Court duction capacity of about 25,000 bricks at the brick kilns and the industrial orders (Narain and Bell 2006). per day, using a mix of coal and biomass. boilers, followed by the enforcement While these initiatives helped improve The area covered by the black boxes of an inspection and maintenance the quality of air in the city in the early drawn north of the outer ring road programme. Economic & Political Weekly EPW June 30, 2012 vol xlvii nos 26 & 27 25 COMMENTARY Another major source of pollution in is decentralised close to the area of dis- power plants and industrial units, waste most Indian cities is road dust (CPCB posal – which means that residents are burning, resuspension of road dust and 2010), including that from the construc- exposed to burning fumes of plastic, dust from construction activities, etc. tion activities. This source, a large part rubber, and soot. Considerable knowl- But at the end of the day, pollution is an PM of the coarse 10 pollution, is often dif- edge of best practices to improve the externality (a public bad) that cannot be fi cult to quantify as it depends on the ve- waste collection and management exists. addressed without concerted action hicle movement on the roads, road types, The problem has been in adapting these from the city and national authorities. silt loading on roads and at construction practices to specifi c local conditions. This goes beyond just setting emission sites, and meteorological conditions. Six major power plants are located in and ambient standards, monitoring However, this source can be managed the vicinity of Delhi (Figure 3, p 25) with emissions and pollution but also enforc- with measures like wet sweeping, pro- a combined generation capacity of 2,700 ing these for vehicles, industry, waste moting vegetation in dry areas, paving MW (Kansal et al 2009).