Will Delhi become a gas chamber this time too? Arrangements to keep the air clean are inadequate

Doubt over the result
The most interesting thing is that this time he did not talk about stubble burning. Everyone knows that most of the air pollution in Delhi in October-November is caused by stubble burning. Still he did not talk about stubble, even though there is Aam Aadmi Party government in both Delhi and Punjab. I would like to say that the experiment of fake rain that the Delhi government wants to do again is also not going to yield any result. If we look at the last decade, the Delhi government has only done experiments. They implemented odd-even, installed smoke towers which almost do not work. The practice of switching off engines at traffic signals was also not done. Stopping commercial vehicles and not allowing them to enter Delhi also did not give any significant result.

Some more reasons
Whatever experiments have been going on for the last 10 years, they have not yielded any results. Now if we talk about artificial rain or work from home, then this too will not yield any significant results. The reason for this is very simple that the sources of pollution in Delhi are different, the reason is something else. First of all, it has to be accepted that Delhi is only 2.7% of the NCR region. Delhi's pollution is due to Delhi, but most of its reasons come from outside Delhi. Many studies show that 50 to 70% of Delhi's pollution comes from outside.

Biomass and dust
If we want to reduce pollution in Delhi, we need a regional coordinated approach. There is no other solution than this. Secondly, the main cause of pollution in Delhi is biomass, which is used today as fuel for cooking, as heating fuel to avoid cold in winter and in small domestic industries. Apart from this there is stubble. This biomass today contributes 60% to PM 2.5 in Delhi-NCR. Apart from this, 30% of pollution comes from factories and power plants, where coal and other fuels are used. All this together becomes 90%. At the same time, less than 10% of pollution comes from vehicles. Dust pollution is also high in Delhi. Dust comes from where buildings or road infrastructure is being built. Dust also comes from all the open lands in the Delhi area.

will compete together
If the Delhi government is serious about reducing air pollution, it should not work on immediate measures like artificial rain. The Delhi government needs to sit and work with the Center, Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. First of all, the central government needs to create air pollution control zones and notify the Delhi Air Pollution Control Zone. There should be coordinated work on air pollution in the control zones in this entire area. A study by I Forest shows that this air pollution control zone can be created by combining Delhi NCR and four districts of UP, Aligarh, Hathras, Mathura and Agra. Its radius is 150 kilometers. All the districts around Delhi should come under it. There is a need to work on air pollution in a coordinated manner in this entire zone.

the smoke must stop
Second, we can reduce biomass. For this, not just the Delhi government, but all governments will have to launch a coordinated Ujjwala scheme. The aim of the Ujjwala scheme should be to replace heating and cooking fuels within the air pollution control area with natural gas and electricity. In this entire 150-km radius, which includes 20-25 districts besides Delhi, heating and cooking needs to be replaced. If we do this, 25 to 30% air pollution can be reduced immediately. Then stubble burning will have to be strictly stopped. This will reduce pollution by another 10%.

Electric Way
The third way is to arrange factories and thermal power plants. Small factories in the MSME sector pollute due to boiler fuel. If we shift boiler fuel to electricity, pollution will also reduce to a great extent. As far as big industries are concerned, they have to be made to follow the standards. Fourth, we need to plant a lot of trees and grass in Delhi Air Pollution Control Areas to reduce dust. And finally, we need to rapidly shift Delhi's vehicles to electricity.

half expectation
If we focus on these five bold steps, we can reduce pollution in Delhi by 50% in the next 3 to 5 years. But is the Delhi government ready for this?

(The author is CEO, iForest)

Presented by: Rahul Pandey