World Environment Day: No time to lose for Delhi to make sustainability switch

The national capital requires a green action plan to tackle groundwater depletion, pollution and increasing waste burden.

Delhi has long been a city of hopes and dreams as thousands head the capital’s way every year in search of job and business opportunities. With the widespread development, each passing year, the stress on city’s resources has multiplied too. Now, pushed almost to the brink, Delhi has no other way but to switch to a sustainable and green action plan, which works on improving its highly polluted air quality, finds solutions to its depleting groundwater table, reduces the increasing burden on natural resources and finds solution to its waste problem, getting the city rid of its three garbage mountains.

Qutub Minar illuminated on the eve of World Environment Day. (Amal KS/HT)

Climate crisis

The ominous signs manifested in extreme weather events can’t be ignored any more. Since 2020, extreme rain and heat over several continuous months has underlined the importance of finding sustainable solutions to fight the impact of the climate crisis.

Since August 2020, Delhi has registered one record weather event every month. Last month, Delhi registered its highest ever maximum temperature at Mungeshpur at 49.2°C.

The rain volume is also inching up. Delhi has been receiving frequent showers throughout the year now. These spells are characterised by intense showers, for a short duration. Last year, Delhi received 1,512.4mm of annual rainfall, almost double the normal and only the second highest for Delhi, behind 1933, when it was 1,534.4 mm.

Mounting waste challenge

Waste is another challenge that needs immediate attention. According to municipal data, Delhi generates 11,119 tonnes of waste every day or over 4 million tonnes every year. More than half this currently ends up at the already saturated three landfill sites in the city.

Landfill sites in Delhi exhausted their capacity over a decade and half ago. Besides causing air pollution, they have also contaminated groundwater. The efforts to set up new landfill sites or waste processing sites in places like Rani Khera or Ghonda Gujran have met stiff resistance from local residents.

Despite this, agencies have failed to implement basic solutions such as segregation of waste at source yet.

Karthik Ganesan, Fellow and Director - Research Coordination at the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), says for a rapidly urbanising economy such as India, many look to urban centres such as Delhi for economic prosperity, however, the future is not what it used to be. “To prosper we need to reimagine urban India as the one that puts equity at the core of its existence...,” he says.

Switch to solar

Currently, 51.7% of India’s power generation comes from coal-based thermal power plants. Delhi is no different. According to state government data, around 57% of Delhi’s average annual power supply of about 3,700 MW comes from coal-based thermal power plants.

In 2016, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government notified the Delhi Solar Policy with a target of establishing solar generation of 1 GW (1,000 MW) by 2020 and 2 GW (2,000 MW) by 2025.

EV push

In the past three years, Delhi has seen a steep increase in electric vehicles, thanks to the state government’s targeted policy for pushing use of electric vehicles across the section of users – cars, two wheelers and even e-cycles. Currently, Delhi has 0.15 million registered EVs, and the number is increasing.

The city belongs to its residents and any solution to implement sustainability has to be supported by the citizens by including eco-friendly ways of going about their lives, use of natural resources and reducing emissions. It may seem daunting, but some of us are already living a cleaner, environment-friendly life. This World Environment Day, HT brings you the experiences of some of Delhi’s unsung green warriors.