Varanasi has only one air quality monitoring station

Why in news?
  • PM Modi’s constituency Varanasi have only one air quality monitoring station, despite being ranked as among the top 3 most polluted cities in the world three years ago.
More in news
  • Situation in Varanasi:
    (1) Varanasi suffered from poor air quality for 70% of the days between October and November 2018.
    (2) PM 2.5 levels crossing 170 micrograms per cubic meter against the national average of 60 and the WHO average of 25.
    (3) Varanasi is one of the cities that is part of the National Clean Air Campaign.
    (4) One of the commitments under this is to improve air quality monitoring.
  • Findings by Let Me Breathe portal:
    (1) This portal investigates how people cope with poor air quality.
    (2) Through queries with the city’s civic officials and the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board with Right to Information requests they check what progress the city had made in improving its air quality.
    (3) This finds that an average air quality for PM 2.5 from 2017-2019 had improved to 104 from 206 in 2016.
    (4) But the maximum PM levels breached continued to be above 200, or in the “very poor” category.
  • Zero ‘good-air’ days:
    (1) The Central Pollution Control Board’s 2015 dataset found Varanasi’s air quality to be among the most toxic in the country.
    (2) It had only one air quality monitor capable of measuring particulate matter 2.5 and particulate matter 10 levels.
    (3) Out of 227 days measured in 2015, the city had zero ‘good-air’ days.
    (4) This was attributed to:
  • Heavy levels of industrial pollution.
  • Biomass burning.
  • Vehicular emissions.
  • Brick kilns and diesel generator.
 
  • National Clean Air Program (NCAP):
    (1) It is an initiative by the Union Environment Ministry.
    (2) It aims to target 20%–30% reduction of PM2.5 and PM10 concentration by 2024.
    (3) Objective of the NCAP is comprehensive mitigation actions for prevention, control and abatement of air pollution besides augmenting the air quality monitoring network across the country and strengthening the awareness and capacity building activities.
    Source
    The hindu
     
     
     
     
Posted by Jawwad Kazi on 18th May 2019
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