New Delhi
The East Delhi Municipal Corporation(EDMC), on an experimental basis, will use a ‘chemical-based suppressant’ to control dust pollution on Saturday.
The corporation has procured “a combination of hexahydrate flakes and magnesium chloride powder” from a company based in Mumbai, senior EDMC officials said.
“The chemical, tested and certified by CSIR-NEERI (National Environmental Engineering Research Institute), when sprayed in the ambient atmosphere with water, makes dust and particulate matter very heavy. It settles it on the ground for six to eight hours at least,” said Dilraj Kaur, EDMC commissioner.
“Water alone is not as much effective and keeps the dust suppressed for just about 15-30 minutes depending on the temperature, wind speed and traffic volume. For example, if it is hot during the day, the water molecules will evaporate faster and the dust will re-suspend in the air quickly,” she explained.
The ‘hexahydrate flakes and magnesium chloride’ formulation is mixed in water in a 1:200 ratio, senior engineer with EDMC, Arun Kumar, said.
“When dust stays down for longer, we do not need to repeat our water-sprinkling exercise very frequently during the day. It not just reduces our effort and water wastage, but reduces damage to the road surface as well,” Kumar said. “We will try it out first at Mandoli -- one of our unauthorised areas that has an industrial hub and unpaved roads with lots of dust flying -- on Saturday. If it’s successful, we will try it out at our other areas as well,” he said.
Currently, EDMC is using 40 water-sprinkling machines of about 9,000 litres capacity, which make several trips during the day, spraying water in their routes. The corporation, recently, had also decided to use treated sewage water to save fresh water from being wasted in the exercise.
{{/usCountry}}Currently, EDMC is using 40 water-sprinkling machines of about 9,000 litres capacity, which make several trips during the day, spraying water in their routes. The corporation, recently, had also decided to use treated sewage water to save fresh water from being wasted in the exercise.
{{/usCountry}}The Supreme Court, during a hearing on an air pollution matter recently, had asked the chief secretaries of Punjab, Haryana and Delhi to “explore all possible options to mitigate dust” and submit a report as soon as possible.
The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) had also asked the three corporations to go for ‘chemical-based dust suppressants’ instead of normal water-based dust suppressants.
Last year, chemical dust suppressants were tried out but did not yield the desired results, CPCB officials said.
“For these chemicals to act, you need a certain level of humidity in the atmosphere. In Delhi, the required moisture is not available, especially during winters. High quality of these chemicals can harm the plants and even humans. All this will have to be considered while experimenting with it this time,” the official said.