Noida air quality still ‘very poor’, likely to worsen

Noida: The air quality of Noida on Thursday continued to remain under ‘very poor’ category for three days in a row, while that of Greater Noida and Ghaziabad improved

Noida: The air quality of Noida on Thursday continued to remain under ‘very poor’ category for three days in a row, while that of Greater Noida and Ghaziabad improved to ‘very poor’ from ‘severe’ a day earlier. However, the air quality of the three cities is likely to worsen again over the weekend due to unfavourable conditions, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

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According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data, the air quality index (AQI) of Noida on Thursday, on a scale of 0 to 500, was 360 against 394 a day earlier. AQI of Greater Noida was 358 against 406 a day earlier, while that of Ghaziabad also improved from ‘severe’ category to ‘very poor’, with an AQI of 377 against 421 a day earlier.

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

According to IMD, the wind direction is still north-westerly but the speed has dropped, leading to lower ventilation of the pollutants. However, the number of stubble fire incidents also dropped, due to which additional pollution mass intrusion into the region was also less, leading to slight improvement in the air quality. The wind speed is likely to drop further on Friday and Saturday, leading to further worsening, the Met department said.

“The wind speed on Thursday afternoon reached a maximum of 8 kmph, but the fire incidents would have dropped leading to a little ventilation. A western disturbance approaches the Himalayan region on Friday that will lead to the change in the wind directions from north-westerly to the easterly. The wind directions, when change, tend to slow down the wind speed. So, for Friday and Saturday, the maximum wind speed would be around 5 kmph, which will lower the ventilation and increase the pollution levels,” said Kuldeep Srivastava, head, regional weather forecasting centre, IMD.

The fine particles or pollutants also saw marginal drop on Thursday, yet the PM2.5 levels were three times the safe limit.

PM2.5 level for past 24 hours in Noida was recorded at 199 microgrammes per cubic metres (µg/m³) against 255.66 µg/m³ a day earlier. The PM2.5 for Greater Noida was 198.31 µg/m³ against 269.52 a day earlier. The PM2.5 for Ghaziabad was 225.04 µg/m³ against 302.79 a day earlier.

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 suffer on Friday. “Air quality is likely to marginally deteriorate for the next two days within the Very Poor owing to calm wind condition. AQI is likely to marginally improve on December 6 due to better ventilation,” said the SAFAR statement on Thursday.