New Delhi: Delhi’s air quality “improved significantly” on Thursday as overnight rains washed away bigger pollutants, giving some respite to the city which has been reeling under “severe” pollution for the past one week, according to authorities. The air quality, though a tad better, was still in ‘poor’ category with an AQI of 228. The AQI has been oscillating between severe and the upper range of very poor for the past one week even crossing 600 post-Diwali.
According to the Centre-run System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting (SAFAR), similar conditions are likely to prevail in the coming days.
On Wednesday, the Particulate Matter (PM) 2.5, particles in the air with a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometres, level was recorded at 140, while the PM10, particles in the air with a diameter of less than 10 micrometres, was recorded at 232 in Delhi, according to data from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).
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Fourteen areas in Delhi recorded ‘very poor’ air quality while 20 areas showed ‘poor’ air quality, the CPCB said. Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Greater Noida and Noida recorded ‘very poor’ air quality while Gurgaon’s air quality was recorded in the ‘poor’ category, it said.
An AQI between 0 and 50 is considered ‘good’, 51 and 100 ‘satisfactory’, 101 and 200 ‘moderate’, 201 and 300 ‘poor’, 301 and 400 ‘very poor’, and 401 and 500 ‘severe’.
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SAFAR said air quality has improved significantly mainly due to sufficient rainfall last night that washed away bigger particles and created space for faster dispersion without a decline in temperature.
This is mainly due to the fact that surface winds are still low and the temperature is likely to cool down. Stubble fire is unlikely to impact Delhi as fire counts are significantly down and winds are also flowing from other direction, it said.
NDTV – Dettol Banega Swachh India campaign lends support to the Government of India’s Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM). Helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan, the campaign aims to spread awareness about hygiene and sanitation, the importance of building toilets and making India open defecation free (ODF) by October 2019, a target set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, when he launched Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in 2014. Over the years, the campaign has widened its scope to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and menstrual hygiene. The campaign has also focused extensively on marine pollution, clean Ganga Project and rejuvenation of Yamuna, two of India’s major river bodies.
