Focus on pollution

NCR needs an effective regulator

Even as the government gives an unceremonious burial to the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) for the National Capital Region (NCR) of Delhi by allowing the Ordinance to lapse, a Swiss environment agency has identified the NCR as the world’s most polluted region. The World Air Quality Report, 2020, put out by the Swiss air technology organisation, IQAir, reveals that 22 of the world’s 30 most polluted cities, including 14 in the top 15, are in India, mostly in the north. All the cities sharing borders with Delhi, and many others in its vicinity in the NCR, figure among these 22. These include Gurugram, Noida, Greater Noida, Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Meerut, Agra, Bulandshahr, Dharuhera, and Bhiwadi. This revelation, even if least surprising, assumes significance because of its timing. The year 2020 was the period when air pollution dipped perceptibly across the world due to Covid-19 pandemic-driven lockdowns. Even Delhi, which tops the polluted capitals, recorded an overall 15 per cent drop in its pollution level. But the load of the particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5) — which can enter the blood stream through respiratory organs to cause various illnesses — in the NCR air remained in the unhealthy category. This menace cannot be allowed to endure.

The issue is not about the burial of CAQM, an inter-ministerial and multi-state pollution regulator for the NCR, which had a short, uneventful, but chequered lifespan. It came into being through an Ordinance issued on October 28, 2020, and subsumed the pollution control entities like the Supreme Court-appointed Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA) and the three committees-cum-task forces functioning under the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the Prime Minister’s Office, and the environment ministry. The Commission was given adequate powers to monitor and curb pollution in five northern states — Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan. But it could show neither the needed dynamism nor urgency to improve the quality of air. Little wonder, therefore, that it was allowed to cease to exist without even a formal official announcement to this effect — more or less in the same manner as it was created.

The problem is that the lack of adequate action on combating air pollution is costing the country dear in both health and economic terms. One of every eight deaths is now attributed to foul air. Besides, pollution has overtaken tobacco as the key contributor to the overall disease burden. A study published in the December issue of The Lancet reckons the economic loss due to pollution-triggered premature deaths at $36,804 million. Corporate circles fear that unrestrained pollution could push company headquarters away from the polluted regions like the NCR.

The silver lining, if any, in this ominous environment is that most of the pollutants are generated within the NCR and can, therefore, be controlled in situ. The contribution from outside is limited to short phases in winter (October-November) due to stubble burning or in summer (April-May) due to dusty winds from the arid zone, part of which also falls in the NCR. The rest of the contaminants, found round the year, comes from vehicular emissions, industrial units, thermal power plants, brick kilns, manual sweeping, and the burning of leaves and other wastes. None of these activities is truly beyond control. But an efficient, effective, empowered, and aptly focused regulator is imperative to achieve tangible results.