SAFAR to identify, mark 26 sources of Delhi pollution

The System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR) on Thursday kickstarted its mission to identify and mark locations of 26 sources within the national capital which pollute the air.

Launching a mega emission inventory campaign here, SAFAR mobilised 100 students and researchers from School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi.

The teams will be collecting data over the next two months along with teams of SAFAR and experts from Odisha's Utkal University.

"There are 26 different sources of emission, while we focus only on a handful like automobile and power plants... the ongoing activity of data collection is second such after the 2010 Commonwealth Games," Project Director SAFAR, Gufran Beig, told IANS.

Beig said that focus of the campaign is more towards various small sectors and factors that are equally responsible for Delhi air pollution like condition of roads, pattern of transport flow from surrounding regions, construction activity, aviation, all kinds of practices by immigrant works, changing lifestyles, cooking habits and more.

The 'emission inventory' identifies the local sources and their effective region within the confined region, which helps identify the emission hotspot and plan control measures.

The emission inventories has been developed for various pollutants including Oxides of Nitrogen, Carbon Monoxide, Black Carbon, Organic Carbon, Particulate Matter, Sulfur Dioxide and Volatile Organic Compounds.

--IANS

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