Patna breathed only seven ‘good’ air quality days in last 7 months: Report

The analysis indicates that only 3% of the total days (7 months) were in the ‘Good’ category and the air quality in the city was not healthy to breathe on the remaining 97% of the days, where 66% of the days were in ‘Moderate’ and ‘Very Poor’ air quality category while only 31% of days fell into ‘Satisfactory’ category.

The capital city experienced only seven days of good quality ambient air, as categorised by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), in the past seven months this year.

The pollution trends show that January was the most polluted month. (HT FIle)

It was revealed in a report called Ambient Air Quality Assessment of Patna, carried out by the Centre for Environment and Energy Development (CEED) — an independent organisation working for environment conservation — based on data of air quality released daily by the CPCB.

The analysis indicates that only 3% of the total days (7 months) were in the ‘Good’ category and the air quality in the city was not healthy to breathe on the remaining 97% of the days, where 66% of the days were in ‘Moderate’ and ‘Very Poor’ air quality category while only 31% of days fell into ‘Satisfactory’ category. These findings are significant as the state had been under lockdowns during the last seven months due to the Covid pandemic when most of the economic and industrial activities were temporarily ceased.

The pollution trends show that January was the most polluted month, while July happened to be the least polluted month in the same period based on the monthly mean concentration of PM2.5. The average concentration of PM2.5 was 130 µg/m3 in January, while in February and March, it was 114 µg/m3 and 98 µg/m3, respectively. The average concentration in April and May months was 89 µg/m3 & 39 µg/m3. In June, the monthly mean concentration was 33 µg/m3 and in July, it was 25 µg/m3.

Ankita Jyoti, senior program officer at CEED, said, “The clean air action plan (CAAP) -- notified by the Bihar state pollution control board (BSPCB) two years ago for Patna -- is an important response to curb air pollution. About half of the steps should have been implemented as per the mandates.”

“The state government agencies must take formidable measures such as ensuring effective accountability mechanism to meet the air quality goals, facilitating a single-window access system to track measures undertaken, enhancing public access to the quarterly progress report of the plan submitted to the NGT and ensuring adequate representation of civil society organisations in the monitoring committee, besides holding effective public awareness programs in the city,” said CEED senior program officer.

A comparative analysis of PM2.5 was also done for 2020 (Jan-July), which indicated that the PM2.5 was 25% higher in February, 31% in March and 50% in April this year. The average monthly concentration of PM2.5 is 15% higher in May as compared to last year, a total of 27% higher concentration was observed in June this year, while in July, it was only 5% higher.

The statistics of the last five years indicated that air pollution in Patna is in critical condition and has shown an increasing trend since 2016 and citizens are forced to breathe in unhealthy air. For Instance, the annual concentration of PM10 was at least 3.5 times the national standard in 2016, 3.4 times in 2018 and 3.9 times in 2019. Though in 2017, the level of pollution decreased slightly, still it was 2.6 times more than the national standard.