Open Forum
New Delhi, 21 September 2018
New Pollution Plan
WILL IT MEET TARGET?
By Dhurjati Mukherjee
The Environment
Ministry’s ambitious draft plan, proposing multiple strategies to monitor and
curb air pollution nationwide, is being viewed by experts as a difficult
proposition to implement. It lacks infrastructure to slash its earlier target
by 35 per cent in three years and 50 per cent in five years.
The National Clean
Air Programme (NCAP) released by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate
Change (MoEFCC) in mid-April has proposed enhancing the air pollution
monitoring network from 691 to 1000 towns and add 50 more stations in rural
areas. The document notes that rural areas maybe badly polluted, contrary to
popular belief that these are free from air pollution. The plan also discusses
the need for strengthening the network of real-time and continuous ambient air
quality monitoring stations especially in cities in the heavily polluted
Indo-Gangetic plains and for setting up a 10-city super network to capture the
overall air quality dynamics of the nation.
The programme would
expand monitoring stations for particulate matter seized 2.5 microns or less –
the deadliest form of air pollutants that can penetrate deep into the lungs and
bloodstream. The NCAP comes amid concerns from studies indicating that about
1.8 million people across India die every year prematurely from health impacts
of air pollution.
The document states
that large cities will be expected to implement 42 measures curb air pollution
that include multiple steps to reduce vehicular pollution, road and
construction dust, industrial emissions and soot from burning of biomass and
garbage. The mechanisms proposed for monitoring, assessment and inspection of
the implementation of the activities need to be strictly adhered to, if
pollution has to be checked.
However, according to
experts, the draft programme plan lacks clear pollution reduction targets and
city-wise or region-wise milestones, relies heavily on State governments to
lead the battle against air pollution and lacks the teeth to ensure compliance.
The programme plan was unveiled by the Ministry after views, comments and
suggestions from all stakeholders were received. The move comes close on the
heels of MoEFCC and the country’s top pollution watchdog, the Central Pollution
Control Board (CPCB), relaxing the December 2017 deadline for thermal power
plants to meet emission standards till 2022.
India has a large
number of laws, rules and guidelines to control air pollution. The problem is
that these are not implemented anywhere near the level of stringency that is
required. The only significant idea that the draft NCAP has on implementation
is the need to expand and train officials of the CPCB and State Pollution
Control Boards for this purpose. This obviously is clearly necessary but it is
bound to be a long-term process, unable to handle the air pollution problem
with the required urgency. Even the 42-point action plan for the CPCB in the
draft fails to show this sense of urgency.
This apart, the
sections on implementation in the draft NCAP are essentially about measures
already in place, with little sign of understanding the extent to which these
measures work or do not work, and why. An example is the Graded Response Action
Plan for Delhi and the National Capital Region.
This plan is
controlled by a highly dedicated group of experts. But every time they try to
implement it, they are confronted by various lobbies such as that of factory
owners, realtors, transporters, vehicle manufacturers, farmers and even sundry
Ministries in both Central and State governments. The result is that the
implementation is at best partial. The draft NCAP is silent on how such a
situation can be improved in the short term.
It is widely recognised
that air pollution has disastrous consequences on human health, specially the
section of the population residing in slums, squatter settlements, railway
colonies etc. A recent study by Yale and Peking Universities and published in Proceedings
of National Academy of Science journal pointed out that air pollution not only
harms the heart and lungs but also affects the brain so much so that people,
specially the elderly could struggle for words or complete simple math sums. Worse,
long term exposure to air pollution severely affects cognition skills.
Regarding the
deterioration in cognitive skills, one may mention that an American study last
year showed a correlation between the brain size of elderly women and the
levels of pollution in their area. More the pollution, higher and faster is the
shrinkage of the brain, the study found.
As regards India, exposure
to air pollution is normally over a long period, the effect is more pronounced.
Thus, the study’s findings hold true for our nation as well where roughly 23
lakh people died in 2015 due to causes arising out of air pollution. The
trajectory of development in both China and India are somewhat similar and
hence are the levels and sources of pollution.
Oncologists too have
found that long term exposure to air pollution may extend to cancer. Lungs of
children exposed to pollution become shrunken and damaged with some of these
children suffering from diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder
or asthma.
Other than political
will, the draft plan should have dealt with the need for more active citizen
participation. In many Indian cities, especially in the northern parts of the
country, there is now a situation in which residents talk about the terrible air
pollution, then jump into their diesel SUVs and drive off to buy air purifiers
for their homes! Delhi is perhaps the only city in the world where a Bus Rapid
Transport corridor project failed because motorists refused to abide by the
rules. There is an urgent need to take on such behaviour.
Just as urgently,
there is a need for bureaucrats and technocrats to accept citizen science on
air pollution. In Beijing, air pollution was brought under some sort of control
only after the average resident downloaded a simple pollution monitor on to his
or her smartphone and started sending the results to all and sundry all the
time. In India, incipient attempts to do the same have elicited sharply hostile
reactions from the ministry and the CPCB, whose officials keep talking about
how inaccurate those monitors may be, how they are not calibrated properly and
so on.
It is no surprise,
that plans and programmes in India rarely attain their targets. This should not
be allowed to happen in the case of NCAP as the problem of pollution has severe
consequences on human health. As such, serious action is called for by the
Centre and State governments with both financial and technical support as also
strict monitoring of pollution rules and regulations. They must remember that a
stitch in time saves nine. --- INFA
(Copyright, India
News & Feature Alliance)
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