Factors contributing to air pollution in Delhi

Discuss about the Global Health for Environmental Monitoring and Assessment.

Environment all around the world is degrading. The situation is worse in the metropolitan cities like Delhi. There are various variables that are influencing the weather of the town. Smokes, heavy traffic, over population, improper city planning, excessive construction are the major forces that are leading to this situation. The death and disease tolls due to air pollution are increasing every year. Currently it is the most polluted city in the world (Rizwan, Nongkynrih & Gupta, 2013). Policy failures and over exploitation of resources is not allowing the situations to get better. The basic necessity of life is at stake is doing to degrade further if the situation continues. This situation has increased the number of health issues and the rate is alarming. This report presents the DPSEEA framework so as to analyse the air pollution issues in the city of Delhi. It also provides the role of various stakeholders in managing this issue. At last the gap in the policy, regulation and plans has been elaborated.

WHO has given DPSEEA framework so as to understand the elements that influences environmental health issues (Guttikunda & Gurjar, 2012). In any region these elements can be evaluated for understanding the situation of the environment. For Delhi, DPSEEA framework is as follows:

Driving Forces

There are many driving force that are creating more air pollution in Delhi. Some of the major forces are:

• Population Growth: The population growth in Delhi is very fast. Every day millions of people are coming to this city. Population growth requires new infrastructure to be developed hence creating a lot of pollution (IEHIAS, 2018).
• Economic Development and Urbanisation: Delhi is a place where people from every economic background reside. The economic development and urbanisation of Delhi is very fast hence there are large numbers of development projects going on in the city. This is increasing the pollution level in the town.
• Energy: Since the energy requirement of the city is increasing hence energy requirements are also increasing. The excessive fuel consumption and burning of coal for providing electricity is degrading the air quality (Rajarathnam, Sehgal, Nairy, Patnayak, Chhabra & Ragavan, 2011).
• Agriculture: This is a weaker force still the industrial waste and use of pesticides and other pollutants degrades the air quality in the rural region. Aerosol has been the major ingredients in such chemicals.
• Transport policies: The transport policies have not been such effective over the years but now the NGT has banned use and entry of Diesel trucks more than ten years old (Kumar, Khare, Harrison, Bloss, Lewis, Coe & Morawska, 2015). There are many other policies and rules have been made in this regards which is elaborated in the later section of this report.

There are some elements that are putting pressure on the air:

• Aerosol: This is one of the major ingredients that are causing air pollution. Spraying of pesticides, suspension of natural dust and smog particles in air is causing health issues.
• CFC: With the increase in the number of vehicles and technological equipment like A.C., CFC content in the air is also increasing. It is a dangerous pollutant (Garg, 2011).

State

• Long term climate change: Over the years, climate has changed considerably especially in terms of excessive rainfalls, high temperature during summers and foggy mornings in winters. This change in the climatic conditions has increased the health issues in Delhi.

There are various variables under this which is effecting the air pollution. The variables such as Heatwaves, Coldwaves, high winds, increase in temperature along with air pollutant. Water and food quality have degraded which has reduced the immunity of the people to resist pollution content (Guttikunda & Goel, 2013).

In the last few years, many people have suffered with the diseases related to air pollution. The particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5) content in Delhi is very high. This has made Delhi the most polluted metropolitan city in the world (Nagpure, Gurjar & Martel, 2014). In India only Gwalior and Raipur has worse air quality than this. The most common diseases are bronchitis, asthma, lung cancers, epilepsy, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, sore throat, headaches, fatigue, coughs, irritation in eyes etc.

There are various actions taken by the government and different authorities for reducing the impact of these variables:

• Policies: In the last few years there are many policies and regulations are made by the government of Delhi and India. Odd-even formulae were implemented by the Delhi government so as to reduce the number of vehicles on the road. Ban on use and entry of trucks that are older than 10 years. Apart from this Supreme Court has banned burning of waste in the city (Guttikunda, Goel & Pant, 2014).
• Mitigation and adaptation strategies: There are many strategies used by the governmental bodies so as to improve the air quality. NGT has advised the government of Delhi and India to take severe actions against the builders not following the rules, illegal mining and cutting down of trees has been prohibited. In the last winter season there was ban on any type of construction so that people do not suffocate to death.
• Clean technology: Government has forced all the organisations to take use of clean technology. Using industrial equipment and vehicles that run on electricity has been encouraged.
• Education and Awareness: Government is running many types of educational and awareness programs so as to spread awareness in the people for utilising the resources in a sustainable manner.
• Treatment: Various types of treatment programs have been run by government and local authorities so as to ensure that people get effective treatment for any health issues.

Impacts of air pollution in Delhi

Apart from DPSEEA model, there are some other factors that are influencing the air pollution. They are:

• Political: The failure in implementing measures for protecting environment has led to this problem. Slow bureaucratic process along with corruption in granting resources has intensified the problems (Tiwari, Chate, Srivastava, Safai, Srivastava, Bisht & Padmanabhamurty, 2012). A lack of long term plan has made the situations worst.
• Economic: The economic development in Delhi is highest in the nation. This has resulted in lots of developmental projects going on in the town. This has increased the pressure on the resources. With the increasing demand in the town it is not possible to keep these tasks on hold.
• Social: Social demographics of the city are vibrant and have people from every corner of the country. A huge amount of people comes to this city for searching opportunities as well as for many other purposes (Shrivastava, Neeta & Geeta, 2013).

As discussed several health issues arise due to poor quality of air. Government and many other authorities are trying hard for making the environment clean but they fails due to lack of long term plans and will to stop the things that are creating this pollution. Long term policies and plan for reducing the air pollution is very essential. Role of various players:

• Government of India: They can implement the nation and International policies on sustainable environment plan. They need to make policies against safeguarding from industrial pollution (Firdaus & Ahmad, 2011).
• Government of Delhi: Their role is to implement actions against the protection of environment especially the policies that are related to the infrastructure development. The ban on private vehicle needs to implement at least on few days a week.
• NGT: This is a body that makes plan for sustainable utilisation of resource. At the same time it makes laws against anything against the environment.
• MCD: The Municipal Corporation of Delhi has the role to keep the environment clean by effectively conducting cleaning activities. They also have the role to make the development plan checking their effect on air pollution (Karelia, 2017).
• Community groups: Various NGOs and other community group needs to make sure that they have an effective plan for spreading awareness in the society so as to make a greener tomorrow.
• Legislative and regulatory bodies: The courts and assemblies need to make the laws against the exploitation of resources and has the role to punish the stakeholders doing it.

Even the best efforts from the authoritative bodies has failed to improve the air quality of Delhi because there lies the gap in what’s actually required and the policies that is made by the government.

First thing is that authoritative bodies are making plans for remedies against the situation rather than stopping the cause that is creating it. Policies like odd even cannot reduce the air pollution rather government needs to focus on the development of the public transport infrastructure (NDTV, 2017). Secondly the laws are often violated by the people who have influence in the government or have huge amount of money. Strong implementation of rules has to be made. The Paris summit on environmental change has to be enforced in Delhi also. Gap also lies in the ways in which policies are implemented in rural and urban areas.

Conclusion

From the above based report it can be concluded that Delhi needs a long term plan for coming out of the air pollution problem. Federal and state government along with other authoritative bodies have made regulations and policies for confronting this situation. The air pollution has led to several kinds of health issues. These are caused by several elements DPSEEA framework is very effective in understanding these factor. There are many political, social and economic challenges present in front of Delhi which is not allowing the situation to get better. There are certain gaps existing in the policies made by the government and the things that are really required.

References

Firdaus, G., & Ahmad, A. (2011) Indoor air pollution and self?reported diseases–a case study of NCT of Delhi. Indoor Air, 21(5), 410-416.

Garg, A. (2011) Pro-equity effects of ancillary benefits of climate change policies: a case study of human health impacts of outdoor air pollution in New Delhi. World Development, 39(6), 1002-1025.

Guttikunda, S. K., & Goel, R. (2013) Health impacts of particulate pollution in a megacity—Delhi, India. Environmental Development, 6, 8-20.

Guttikunda, S. K., & Gurjar, B. R. (2012) Role of meteorology in seasonality of air pollution in megacity Delhi, India. Environmental monitoring and assessment, 184(5), 3199-3211.

Guttikunda, S. K., Goel, R., & Pant, P. (2014) Nature of air pollution, emission sources, and management in the Indian cities. Atmospheric environment, 95, 501-510.

IEHIAS, (2018) The DPSEEA framework. Retrieved from: https://www.integrated-assessment.eu/eu/guidebook/dpseea_framework.html

Karelia, G. (2017) 7 Steps Taken By Authorities To Curb Rising Air Pollution Levels In Delhi. Retrieved from: https://swachhindia.ndtv.com/7-steps-taken-by-authorities-to-curb-rising-air-pollution-levels-in-delhi-14332/

Kumar, P., Khare, M., Harrison, R. M., Bloss, W. J., Lewis, A., Coe, H., & Morawska, L. (2015) New directions: air pollution challenges for developing megacities like Delhi. Atmospheric Environment, 122, 657-661.

Nagpure, A. S., Gurjar, B. R., & Martel, J. C. (2014) Human health risks in national capital territory of Delhi due to air pollution. Atmospheric Pollution Research, 5(3), 371-380.

NDTV, (2017) Air Pollution: Green Court NGT Issues Guidelines For ‘Environmental Emergency’ In Delhi. Retrieved from: https://www.ndtv.com/delhi-news/air-pollution-green-court-ngt-issues-guidelines-for-environmental-emergency-in-delhi-1773238

Rajarathnam, U., Sehgal, M., Nairy, S., Patnayak, R. C., Chhabra, S. K., & Ragavan, K. V. (2011) Part 2. Time-series study on air pollution and mortality in Delhi. Research Report (Health Effects Institute), (157), 47-74.

Rizwan, S. A., Nongkynrih, B., & Gupta, S. K. (2013) Air pollution in Delhi: its magnitude and effects on health. Indian journal of community medicine: official publication of Indian Association of Preventive & Social Medicine, 38(1), 4.

Shrivastava, R. K., Neeta, S., & Geeta, G. (2013) Air pollution due to road transportation in India: A review on assessment and reduction strategies. Review Paper (NS-2), Journal of Environmental Research and Development, 8(1).

Tiwari, S., Chate, D. M., Srivastava, M. K., Safai, P. D., Srivastava, A. K., Bisht, D. S., & Padmanabhamurty, B. (2012) Statistical evaluation of PM 10 and distribution of PM 1, PM 2.5, and PM 10 in ambient air due to extreme fireworks episodes (Deepawali festivals) in megacity Delhi. Natural hazards, 61(2), 521-531.