Respite soon for Noida residents as Air quality likely to improve, preventive measures intensified

Noida, Ghaziabad and Greater Noida suffered “very poor” air on Friday,as per the central pollution control board (CPCB) bulletin at 4pm.

Noida, Ghaziabad and Greater Noida suffered “very poor” air on Friday,as per the central pollution control board (CPCB) bulletin at 4pm.

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However, throughout the day, different pockets of the cities even experienced “severe” levels of air pollution that could affect healthy individuals. If it not for meteorological conditions, the average air quality index (AQI) for the day could have been “severe”.

Weather analysts predict some in the coming two days with wind speed likely to pick up.

“The wind speed increased on Friday to an average of 10 kmph (which is the minimum speed required to disperse pollutants in the national capital region, NCR) in the north-westerly direction and brought in smoke and dust from stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana. For a short duration, the speed was even 15 kmph, allowing better ventilation,” said Mahesh Palawat, director of private weather forecasting agency Skymet.

He added that on Saturday and Sunday the wind speed are likely to increase to an average of 15 kmph which will further help with dispersion.

According to the system of air quality and weather forecasting and research (Safar), stubble burning accounted for 19 per cent of the day’s pollution, down from 36 per cent on Thursday.

“Increased surface wind speed and faster dispersion are likely to significantly improve the situation by 1st November,” read the Safar forecast.

Districts’ officials said that they have intensified the pollution control measures like intensive water sprinkling on the roads and discouraging stubble burning.

According to the Uttar Pradesh Pollution control Board (UPPCB), the air quality index (AQI) of Noida, on a scale of 0 to 500, was 379 against 383 a day earlier. For Greater Noida the AQI was 394 against 412 a day earlier. For Ghaziabad it was 382 against 389 a day earlier.

Loni in Ghaziabad, Knowledge Park-V in Greater Noida and Sector-62 in Noida were among the most polluted areas were AQI oscillated between 422 to 402 considered ‘severe’ on Friday.

For Greater Noida, the PM10 589.02 was microgrammes per cubic metre (µg/m³)and PM2.5 levels were 275.6 µg/m³. For Noida, the PM10 and PM2.5 levels were 459.99µg/m³and 240.05µg/m³respectively. For Ghaziabad, the PM10 level was 438.36µg/m³ and PM2.5 was 255.13µg/m³.

The CPCB standard limit for PM2.5 is 40µg/m³while that of PM10 is 60µg/m³.

Agriculture department distributes decomposers to discourage stubble burning

As the stubble burning peaks, the officials at the district agriculture department said that they are distributing decomposers among the farmers to convert stubble into manure, and discourage stubble burning.

“This is the peak time of the harvesting and therefore chances of stubble burning intensify. Thus the department is distributing decomposers among the farmers. It’s a liquid in small bottles that is mixed with about 200 litres of water and sprayed over the stubble. This converts stubble into manure and the farmers don’t have to burn the stubble to improve the fertility of farms,” said Manveer Singh, deputy director, Agriculture, Gautam Budh Nagar.

He added that over 10,000 bottles of decomposers are being distributed among the farmers. Each bottle of decomposer has about 150 ml of decomposing chemicals that is mixed in 200 litres of water and converts stubble into fertiliser within seven days.

“We are also intensifying the awareness drive to discourage stubble burning. The November first week is the peak of paddy harvesting as farmers have to meet the short window to prepare the fields for wheat by November end,” Singh added.

Road washing intensified

Meanwhile, the Noida Authority has intensified the mechanical sweeping, sprinkling and washing the roads as dust controlling measures.

“We have also started washing the roads using machines as dust control measure. A total of 60 kilometres of road length across different parts of the city was washed at night. Apart from that 105 to 110 kms of road are being sprinkled with help of 75 water tankers and mechanical sweeping is being done acorss the length of 243 kms of road,” said Avinash Tripathi, officer on special duty, health, Noida Authority.