In news that has failed to surprise Delhi residents, the capital city of India has been named as the most polluted capital city in the world with the highest PM2.5 concentration. The data comes from the World Air Quality Report, published by the Switzerland based organisation IQAir that surveyed the air quality of 117 countries across the world and also surveyed 107 capital cities. Incidentally, this is the fourth consecutive year when Delhi has topped the list, starting from 2018.
Here are some of the observations noted by the researchers at IQAir:
- The report noted that 35 of the 50 most polluted cities in the world are in India.
- It also found that 11 out of the 15 most polluted cities in South and Central Asia were in India.
- As per the findings of the report, Delhi's PM2.5 pollution rose by 14.6 per cent in 2021 from the previous year.
- The report found that no city in India matched up to the air quality standard approved by the World Health Organisation.
- The WHO's accepted standard average AQI is 5 μg/M3. In Delhi, the average AQI in 2021 was 96.4 μg/M3.
- About 48 per cent of cities in India reportedly have AQI higher than 50 μg/M3.
- Bangladesh has been named the most polluted country in the world while India is at number 5 among 117 countries.
- Despite its efforts to control pollution, China has dropped several places on the ladder, falling to 22nd place in 2021 from the 14th position in 2020.
- After Delhi, the four most polluted capital cities of South and Central Asia are Dhaka (Bangladesh), N'Djamena (Chad), Dushanbe (Tajikistan) and Muscat (Oman) respectively.
- Rajasthan's Alwar also topped in the list of most polluted regional cities in the South Asian region which includes countries like Pakistan, Nepal, Tajikistan, India and others.
- Bhiwadi, another city in Rajasthan has been deemed the most polluted city in the world.
- There are four Indian cities in the top five most polluted cities of India. These include Bhiwadi, Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh), Delhi and Jaunpur (Uttar Pradesh) respectively with Hotan in China occupying third place.
Delhi air worsening
Delhi's air pollution problem, as is evident from its consecutive ranking in the AQI report. In October last year, the Supreme Court if India asked the Delhi government some tough questions about what it was doing to stop the pollution levels from plunging. By November, Kejriwal had himself agreed that the air quality in Delhi was 'deteriorating'. The city even implemented a lockdown to tackle the problem. The movement of vehicles was restricted, a ban was put on certain types of construction work and officers and educational institutions were shut down.
The new ranking comes despite the Delhi government erecting two smog towers to absorb harmful pollutants in a one-kilometre radius at the rate of 1000 cubic metres per second. But the latest data shows an increase from 2020 when the first tower in Connaught Place was inaugurated. While vehicular pollution is known to be the major cause of pollution in the capital, Delhi CM Kejriwal has often blamed crop burning in neighbouring states of Punjab and Haryana as one of the major pollutants. With the AAP forming government in Punjab after winning the Assembly Elections last month, many have wondered if AAP will now be able to bring the city's pollution levels under control.
