Report: Ghaziabad is second most polluted city in world

According to World Air Quality Report 2021 released on Tuesday also revealed that not a single country managed to meet the World Health Organization’s air quality standard in 2021

Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad was ranked as the second-most polluted, after Bhiwadi in Rajasthan, out of 6,475 cities across the world in an annual air quality report prepared by Swiss organisation IQAir.

According to the report, Ghaziabad’s annual average PM2.5 level was 102 micrograms per cubic metre (mpcm) in 2021, 106.6 mpcm in 2020, 110.2 mpcm in 2019, 135.2 mpcm in 2018 and 144.6 mpcm in 2017. (Sakib Ali/HT Photo)

According to World Air Quality Report 2021 released on Tuesday also revealed that not a single country managed to meet the World Health Organization’s (WHO) air quality standard in 2021.

Officials of the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB), however, found a reason to cheer, saying that the report has shown that the average PM2.5 level in Ghaziabad is constantly declining every year.

PM 2.5 is fine, inhalable particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 microns. It is about 30 times smaller than a strand of human hair. PM 2.5 pollutants are made up of hundreds of chemicals. Construction sites, unpaved roads, fields, and smokestacks or fires, power plants, factories, and automobiles emit these pollutants into the air. The pollutants can enter the bloodstream via the respiratory system and cause asthma, lung cancer, and heart disease.

According to the report, Ghaziabad’s annual average PM2.5 level was 102 micrograms per cubic metre (mpcm) in 2021, 106.6 mpcm in 2020, 110.2 mpcm in 2019, 135.2 mpcm in 2018 and 144.6 mpcm in 2017.

WHO recommends that average annual readings of small and hazardous particles of PM2.5 should be no more than 5mpcm after changing its guidelines last year, saying that even low concentrations caused significant health risks. The Indian standard limit for PM2.5 is 60mpcm.

“The report shows that the annual average PM2.5 levels in the city are on a constant decline year after year. Things will improve in time once more and more vehicles with BS-VI norms are rolled out and there is an expansion in PNG supplies in the city,” said Utsav Sharma, regional officer of UPPCB.

Ghaziabad is already listed among 16 non-attainment cities in UP in terms of high pollution levels. Cities are declared “non-attainment” if they do not meet the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for particulate matter (PM10) or nitrogen dioxide (NO2) over a period of five years.

According to officials of the UPPCB, local pollution sources have been curbed to a large extent, while constant work is being done in terms of enforcement activities.

However, the PM2.5 level in the city was higher than the annual level over the past couple of years during the period when the Graded Response Action Plan (Grap – brought in during winter approximately from October 15 to February 15, 2019-22 ) was in effect.

According to official data of the UPPCB, the average PM2.5 level of Ghaziabad was 211mpcm in 2019-20, 228mpcm in 2020-21 and 178mpcm in 2021-22 during the Grap period.

Environmentalists say this clearly shows that “pollution abatement activities” in the past several years have failed to yield the desired results.

“The city needs better enforcement and pollution abatement activities round the year. There has to be strict enforcement against industrial emissions and there is also a need to curb traffic chaos,” said Akash Vashishtha, a city-based environmentalist.

“The high PM2.5 levels are due to the high volume of vehicular traffic and industrial units. If these activities are unregulated, the pollution levels will remain high round the year,” said Sushil Raghav, another city-based environmentalist.