Noida continues to suffer ‘severe’ air quality

Noida and Greater Noida continued to reel under high pollution for the second day in a row with the air quality index remaining in ”severe” category, mostly due

Noida and Greater Noida continued to reel under high pollution for the second day in a row with the air quality index remaining in ”severe” category, mostly due to local emissions and poor ventilation.

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According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the air quality index (AQI) of Noida on Saturday, was 414 or ‘severe’, the same category where it was a day earlier.

The AQI of Greater Noida was 408 against 415 a day earlier. The air quality of Ghaziabad, was 434 against 440 a day earlier. The AQI between 101 to 200 is considered ‘moderate’, between 201 and 300 is ‘poor’, between 301 and 400 is considered ‘very poor’ and above 400 is considered ‘severe’.

Ghaziabad turned out to the most polluted city in the country on Saturday, followed by Kanpur and Bulandshahr.

It is to be noted that for the past two days, the smoke from stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana had been negligible, according to the Union government’s pollution monitoring agency System of air quality and weather forecasting and research (Safar).

According to the weather analyst, due to the change in wind direction, the speed had dropped on Saturday and the region is likely to suffer toxic air quality for the next few days until it either rains or wind picks up speed. A western disturbance is expected in the upper reaches of Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh around December 7-8 and, consequently, the wind is expected to pick up speed around December 10. There will be a slight improvement in air quality with the AQI remaining either in severe category or improving slightly to the very poor category over the next 24-hours.

According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the wind direction currently is easterly and south-easterly which are usually of low speed.

“The average wind speed in some parts of the Delhi-NCR cities was good. On average, the wind speed was around 4kmph, against 6kmph on Friday. This is the reason that the pollutants remained in the air,” said Kuldeep Srivastava, head, regional weather forecasting centre, IMD.

He said while the wind speed may rise slightly in some areas, the speed would remain around 5kmph on Sunday, though a slight rise in temperature may improve the ventilation.

The fine particles or PM2.5 level also remained four to five times high than the safe limit of 60 microgrammes per cubic metres.

PM2.5 for past 24 hours in Noida was 279.54 microgrammes per cubic metres, against 285.13 microgrammes per cubic metres a day earlier. The PM2.5 for Greater Noida was 269.54 units against 262.22 units a day earlier. The PM2.5 for Ghaziabad was 312.8 units against 302.98 units a day earlier.

According to Safar, the AQI is likely to recover slightly on Sunday. “Air quality is likely to improve marginally by Sunday owing to slightly better ventilation conditions. AQI is likely to further improve on December 7 and 8 due to better ventilation,” the Safar bulletin said on Saturday.