Targeting winter pollution: Looking for silver bullets is impractical

Well before Diwali, government agencies sounded the red alert on pollution in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR). Over the past week, the air quality index (AQI) has been “very poor” (between 301 and 400) with the Centre’s air quality early warning system predicting that the AQI will range between “very poor” and “severe” (401-500), with smoke, construction dust, fires from burning waste and agricultural stubble, and vehicular emission spreading a choking smog over the region. This has been an annual feature for at least two decades, with low winter winds proving no match for burgeoning human activities and the newer problem of stubble burning. This year, however, is of particular concern for hitting new highs even before the Diwali conflagration. Yet, barring trading charges, neither the Centre nor the state government has found a viable solution to the problem.

 

The Commission for Air Quality Management has already notified stage two of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP), which includes curbs on construction; a ban on the use of coal, firewood, and diesel-generator sets; controls on polluting vehicles; and emission controls applied to local producing units and brick kilns — without any noticeable improvement. A good part of the reason for this is the lax implementation of these measures. Tackling this problem effectively, however, demands a clear picture of the key causes of winter pollution. In recent years, much of the blame has been laid at the door of Punjab and Haryana, where stubble is burnt to clear fields of paddy stubble and prepare them for the rabi wheat sowing. Thankfully, stubble burning has fallen significantly this year. Pune’s Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), in a recent assessment, reveals stubble burning accounted for roughly 2.4 per cent of the NCR’s bad air. Vehicular pollution is a bigger contributor, accounting for 10-14 per cent of pollution, but past experiments to limit private vehicles via the odd-even car scheme yielded inconclusive results. Now, talk of introducing a congestion tax for cars entering Delhi — as is done in London, Singapore, or Dubai — is being considered, though its practicality will be limited in the absence of adequate public-transport links. As the IITM data reveals, the real concern is that the causes of 30-40 per cent of air pollution cannot be pinpointed, making it difficult for meaningful action to be taken.

 

In other words, there is no silver-bullet solution to the problem of the NCR’s winter pollution. Tackling it demands a series of coordinated and stringently monitored efforts such as better traffic management, including recalibrating signals to reduce idling time; seasonal construction controls that offer builders a better visibility on project timelines; a focus on steady power supply; minimising the use of generators; and task forces to ensure that waste-burning and cracker-bursting bans are not observed, as they are, in the breach. Longer-term solutions, such as cutbacks in coal power and expanding mass-transport networks, are also critical. An option such as artificial rain through cloud seeding may be eye- and vote-catching, but it is far too expensive to be considered a permanent solution. Nor does it disincentivise pollution-causing activities. There is no escaping the fact that the solution to pollution lies in myriad hard decisions and sensible legislation on terra firma rather than up in the clouds.