The good, bad and the ugly on Air Pollution!!

Within a month of coming to power in Delhi, Mr. Kejriwal acquired the tag of being the CM of the City with the worst air quality in the World. 

Doctors and scientists called a Public Health Emergency, saying that Delhi's pollution levels were unprecedented and exposure would cause irreparable damage.

Since that time, coming on 5 years, all that Kejriwal's Government did up until yesterday was the following:

1. Scheduled Odd-Even twice 

2. Tree plantation drive

3. Testing vacuum cleaning machines on roads - which failed

The entire 5 years, AAP pretty much took a stand that all of Delhi's air problems were related to paddy burning and we had no local emissions, to reduce/reverse.

Forward 5 toxic years, now with the re-election campaign, around the bend, he releases a 7 point action plan to tackle air pollution in Delhi. Quite opportunistic......just saying!!

Any Agenda to tackle air pollution has to include 2 things:

1. Systematic steps to go after all the sources of air pollution in a consistent and committed manner - not solely during election time. Some sources include biomass burning(to light chulas and for heat(in winter)), vehicular emissions, industrial emissions, waste burning. open cremations, etc.

2. Reducing exposure NOW through awareness programs, issuing health advisories, mask distribution, etc. Our 365 average levels of PM2.5 are 1400% above WHO safe level, even if we start now, it will take decades to fix.

Now my comments on his 7-point action plan:

1. Odd-even - AAP is the only Govt.(in the World) that does scheduled odd-evens. A scheduled odd-even makes no sense - if it rains or the wind speed is good from the 4th-15th November, you will inconvenience residents for no reason.

2. Anti-pollution mask distribution - while masks are the easiest way to reduce exposure, knowing our Govt. they will distribute cheap use and throw masks, not reusable ones, which will create more waste and more air pollution eventually.

3. Use of water sprinklers - these impact PM10 and not PM2.5, so no real health impact.

4. Pollution-free Diwali - Diwali is a blip on our air pollution chart and I personally hate talking about it, because it takes away from real sustained long-term measures. Certainly, restraint is advised here.

5. Vigilance on garbage burning - there is a ban and fine on garbage burning and we still do it. The real problem here is that the poor will still burn biomass to light their chulas or to stay warm in peak winter - and no one can marshall their bid to survive.

6. Tree planting - this has many positive environmental impacts about a decade or two out, however, even when the trees are mature(in 10-20 years) they have no impact on mitigating PM2.5. No immediate impact of this, also, in my experience 90% of saplings planted bt Govt, don't survive.

7. Hotspot Action Plan - to monitor and control - this is very vague - not sure how AAP will control in real-time, when no City around the World has been able to do so.

So, other than garbage burning for which we already have a ban, I see no measure to reduce/reverse air pollution, which is really sad, and tells me that we're not even at the starting point.

The only positive of this AAP initiative is that its brought "All Eyes on Pollution" and hopefully this step will be the catalyst to make "Clean Air" part of the election agenda for the upcoming Delhi election.

Reflecting on above, it's really sad that as a City, we have a Government and residents that have ignored a Public Health Emergency for 5 YEARS. Let's please make this election count.

JAI HIND!!

#MyRightToBreathe