Not just winter, air quality ‘moderate to poor’ in Ghaziabad round the year, says UPPCB

It’s not just the winter months when pollution levels are bad in Ghaziabad city

It’s not just the winter months when pollution levels are bad in Ghaziabad city. According to the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB), the city’s air quality is “moderate to poor” air quality for most of the year.

Ghaziabad, India - November 07, 2022: An anti-smog gun sprinkles water in Vasundhara to curb the rising air pollution, in Ghaziabad, India, on Monday, November 07, 2022. (HT Photo)

An analysis of the first 10 months of the year, from 2019 to 2022, indicates that the air quality index remained in the two categories of “moderate” to “poor” for 59.65% of the 1,217 days that were studied.

The figures also showed that city residents experienced only 38 “good” air days during the period, while there were 28 days when the AQI was in the “severe” category. The UPPCB data further showed that the city had 236 “satisfactory” air days, 396 “moderate” days, 330 “poor” days and 186 “very poor” air days.

“This year, there has been reduction in the ”severe” and ”very poor” days and we expect that coordinated efforts by different agencies in the district and the National Capital Region will further improve conditions in the coming days. In Ghaziabad, various infrastructure projects such as the Delhi-Meerut Expressway, Eastern Peripheral Expressway and others had a major impact on air quality,” said Utsav Sharma, regional officer of UPPCB.

“The majority of work for the Regional Rapid Transit System is also complete. Our internal analysis indicates that there has been reduction in PM10 and PM2.5 ( fine inhalable particulate matter in air) concentrations this year but external and local factors continue to impact the city’s AQI. We are expecting that with measures put in place, the situation is likely to improve in the future,” Sharma said.

Earlier in April, the city was ranked the second-most polluted city in the world after Bhiwadi in Rajasthan, on the World Air Quality Report 2021. The annual report, prepared by Switzerland-based organisation IQAir, surveyed 6,475 cities across the world.

The figures of the UPPCB for the first 10 months of these four years also indicate that “poor” AQI days have increased to 103 in 2022 while the second highest number was 97 in 2019.

The figures also indicate that the “moderate” days have reduced to 92 in 2022 from 100 in 2021 and 120 in 2020.

“The situation this year is more or less similar that which prevailed during the previous years. The only consolation is that no “severe” days were witnessed in the first 10 months of this year. But that was mostly due to meteorological factors besides external and local factors. At the local level, the roads are still dusty and traffic congestions are a daily feature. The local agencies seem to lack the will to make a coordinated effort to tackle local pollution sources,” said Akash Vashishtha, a city-based environmentalist.

“A long-term study is needed to ascertain the share of local pollution sources to city’s air pollution. Further, it is the need of the hour to implement measures under the graded response action plan (Grap) the entire year in polluted cities and not just ahead of winter as it was done this year,” he said.

This year, Grap kicked in on October 1, at least 15 days ahead of the usual schedule.

Environmentalist Sushil Raghav said the months in which city residents experienced high levels of pollution were November and December.

“The pollution levels in November, December and January remain high and this trend has continued for the past several years now. The city has only three monitoring stations while one is in Loni. So, more monitoring stations are needed to get to a clear picture about the pollution levels,” Raghav added.