Air quality in Noida and Ghaziabad slips again, enters ‘very poor’ zone

Noida: The air quality of Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad slipped to ‘very-poor’ levels again on Sunday due to unfavourable weather conditions. The three cities’

Noida: The air quality of Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad slipped to ‘very-poor’ levels again on Sunday due to unfavourable weather conditions. The three cities’ air had been oscillating around ‘poor’ levels since December 14.

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According to the weather analysts, the wind speed dropped and humidity spiked on Sunday, leading to better hold of the pollutants thereby spiking the pollution levels.

“The wind speed on Sunday was around 12-13 kmph, slightly lower than past few days due to the western disturbance. The wind speed will drop further from December 22 onwards,” said Kuldeep Srivastava, head, regional weather forecasting centre, India Meteorological Department (IMD).

According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the air quality index (AQI) of Noida on Sunday was 333 against 301 a day earlier and 288 on Friday. Greater Noida’s AQI was 346 against 292 on Saturday and 297 on Friday. The AQI of Ghaziabad also worsened from poor to very poor category on Sunday. Its AQI was 346 against 295 on Saturday and 304 on Friday.

The AQI between 101 to 200 is considered ‘moderate’, between 201 and 300 is ‘poor’, between 301 and 400 is ‘very poor’ and above 400 is considered ‘severe’.

The fine particles or PM2.5 levels also spiked and are currently two to three times higher than the standards.

On Sunday, PM2.5 for past 24 hours in Noida was recorded at 169.36 microgrammes per cubic metres (µg/m³) against 156.41 µg/m³ a day earlier. The PM2.5 for Greater Noida was 197.80 µg/m³ against 149.72 a day earlier, while the same for Ghaziabad also increased to 204.18 µg/m³ against 162.03 µg/m³ on Saturday. The safe limit for PM2.5 is 60 µg/m³.

According to the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR), AQI is likely to worsen further due to poor ventilation factors. “The overall air quality is at the lower end of the ‘Very Poor’ category. Surface-level winds are moderate and west south-westerly. The cold day conditions are forecasted to intensify and surface winds are likely to slow down. So the current better dispersion conditions are likely to decrease. Hence, AQI is forecasted to deteriorate to middle end of Very Poor category on 21st December, and further deteriorate to the higher end of Very Poor on 22nd Dec and further deteriorate by 23rd Dec,” said the SAFAR statement on Sunday.