The need of the hour is statesmanship and leadership and not endless politicking and blame game which passes off as debate  

I am a Dilliwallah who recently moved to Bangalore a few months ago, only because of the air pollution levels. The live air quality index as of 8 November, had India with its 1238 measuring stations at the bottom of the 140 countries with Pakistan, Serbia and Kyrgyzstan following some distance behind.

Babies and children breathe in disproportionately more than adults compared to their body weight. The Colombia Centre for Children’s Health states infants up to a year inhale 600 litre per kilo of body weight per day, 300 litre by the age of 12, and 200 post 24 when in plateaus, so kids are the most susceptible to disastrous effects of air pollutions – neurological, lowered IQ, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and reducing the health and growth of their lungs finally enhancing the incidence of cancer, heart attacks and strokes in later life.

A study in 2019 by the Energy Policy Institute of the University of Chicago (EPIC) highlighted Delhi’s air quality in 2016 to be toxic and reducing life expectancy by up to ten years. Imagine the loss of life, gross domestic product (GDP) and national health – forget about our fabled demographic dividend.

The need of the hour is getting to the root cause of air pollution in different geographies, seasons, with a rural urban lens, indoor and outdoor, and then get into solution sprinting to fix the issues without politicking or fatefully helpless paralysis.

It is a crying shame that from 2016 we have been in a similar situation year after year and the response is to annually re-arrange the deck chairs on the Titanic.

With Delhi’s AQI once again crossing into un-measurable territory, we start implementing GRAP 4. We need to make most of these, a permanent change!! When we do the same thing over and over again, but expect a different result, it smacks of stupidity.

This crisis needs all of us to act like statesmen and make some changes permanent, bite the bullet, adjust to the immediate consequences, and save lives – and that applies to all of us as individuals, communities, businesses, institutions, media, the judiciary and government.
Is it too much to ask to get the air to be breathable?

A snapshot of pollution sources with PM2.5 being the most noxious having the largest surface area as well as the ability to penetrate the depths of the lungs and permeate the body.

The noxious heavy hitters and what we must do:

Vehicular Pollution: contributing NOx, PM 2.5, CO, black carbon, volatile organic compounds
NOx +VOC’s make ozone

•Scrap all diesel lorries and buses that are more than 15 years old and poorer than BS4 without exception or do better to Euro 6. Get rid of any pay offs at pollution assessment stations.

•Tax diesel vehicles even more than petrol ones as they are 10 times more noxious per km

•Subsidise the electric vehicles – 2 wheelers, 4 wheelers and buses. Get the charging points in select cities and highways up by 10x.

•Seriously game change the quality and frequency of public transport in peak travel hours, and more.

•Decongest urban clogs to reduce vehicle idling in jams, and exceedingly slow vehicular movement to reduce pollution, improve mileage by over 30 per cent and reduce consumption of precious fuel which guzzles our Fx reserves

•CSR of the auto and Petroleum industries can be channelled here for swift impact.

This is where our government and transportation industry needs to invest, now i.e. today – not next year. This is where subsidies should be routed – have an emergency budget meeting at a national and state level on taxes/subsidies and infrastructure to alter purchases and behaviour towards private transport across our country – the issues are the same, and so is the complacency and apathy, it is the severity that varies in different cities, and in a way it is good that the National capital is the worst hit. It wakes up the country.

Construction And Road Dust: PM 10
•We are most efficient at starting to DIG as soon as work is allotted, heap up piles of mud to herald swift progress and then pause, sometimes for months, letting the winds and passing vehicles blow the dust around. Halt construction – public and private unless they ensure curtailment of dust with carpet grassing of mud heaps at work sites, misting etc which other cities undertake and cleaning up the same to restore it to a decent condition befitting the environment once the project is completed- else no completion certificate. The construction industry should take pride in pollution free building in the planning stage, during construction, and in its post completion usage.

•Ensure that road surface quality is maintained for containing road dust, urban and highways. And then pothole management for the same as well as improving vehicular mileage and vehicular life – to give macro benefits to the economy. Roads can be graded on google maps and other apps on road quality and dust emissions for people to be aware of the ‘health’ of a route option.

Waste Burning: Methane, CxHx, Dioxin, PM2.5
•List this action as a punishable offence

•Improve waste collection and processing – Think ten times not incremental capacity building, and think efficiency focused on the outcome, rather than keep this as yet another source of rampant corruption with vested interests without any intent on the outcome. Increase segregation and change the way waste is paid for, incentivise composting at homes and in communities and townships and public gardens.

•Link Air quality monitors to apps on travel, holiday destinations, city sightseeing spots for awareness and action by all

•Put aside a certain amount of CSR of factories in the local area eg within 5 km radius, to help in assisting better waste management to the safe end of life of waste, and support the various waste management NGO’s and private organisations.

Home Air Pollution From The Poorest Of The Poor: Black carbon, VOC’s, PM2.5
This impacts women and infants of the poorest of the poor. Cooking appliances and small gas cylinders need to be given out to these needy folks as CSR to reduce.

Household air pollution from their biomass fuelled stoves. This automatically will improve both health of these families and reduce a significant 10 to 15 per cent contributor of urban air pollution. Set aside 50 per cent of CSR funds to be put into this area and see the impact in two years. Make this a priority for a key sea change in immediate health and health span for many.

Brick Kilns: CxHx, Black carbon, PM10
Stop them unless they have a filter in the immediate term and also go in for cleaner fuel eg agri waste pellets as is being produced now in Punjab. This should be assisted by the Construction industry and then publicised by them. Use CSR funds here.

Crop Burning: Toxic VOC’s, PM 2.5
This is now over so that train has left the station for this season, but laws need to be enacted and solutions provided to farmers immediately as it coincides with atmospheric inversion at the beginning of the cooler season in N India.

The need of the hour is statesmanship and leadership and not endless politicking and blame game which passes off as debate.

All of us are in this together so let’s get this moving today at the levels of government, industry, media, each one of us residents of this land and work towards making a bigger thing happen and stomach the short term issues , and yes there will be some big issues. Governments who are paralysed by vote banks and bickering have to wear a bigger hat and focus on longer term interest of the people.

Crackers, Varied, Noxious Gases And Impact On Lungs
Ban them for any occasion – public or private, religious or otherwise. There are many other more ecological ways to celebrate

Trans Boundary Pollutants With Winds, Waters
Every one of us is interconnected and need to collaborate, states, urban-rural, inter country as we are well aware – so collaborate or perish is the mantra today. Collaboration and cooperation is key. Wearing a bigger hat is important for all of us. We are living on one planet and everything is interconnected.

We are in the ICU, the time for an outcome based action – not a spreadsheet of various actions.
There are so many scientists, NGO’s startups, Industry titans and individuals doing great stuff so let’s help amplify their efforts and sprint together as a nation.

Consumer purchasing power makes for a huge difference and if we are able to make choices of walking or cycling to work or using public transport, and composting kitchen waste, and using less needless energy (have an aircon at 24C instead of 18C with a quilt) and so on. Companies change, start valuing thrifty use of natural resources with a super-premium on ‘polluting’ goods. City governments will invest in walking and cycling infrastructure and green public transport and then green more and more parts of each city, offer free parking for green vehicles etc.

Industry is getting slightly more focused on these more ‘responsible’ actions by the consuming public but we all need to up our game exponentially and not wonder how it will happen, but make it happen.

Startups and companies that survive and later prosper, have all been through crises and churn and uncertainty, but they all bite the bullet – this is the time for us as a nation to bite the bullet and act, not point fingers, because we can move forward, starting with our worst affected metros of the Greater NCR with a radius of 100km, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore and then rapidly scale to other towns and rural areas.

Legislate, change behaviour and attitudes, enforce and celebrate in unison. This is no time for a jaded response, unless you are okay to see your children and grandchildren wilt in front of you. Air is interconnected and my air purifier in my bedroom does not even guarantee air quality in my living room.

Some make things happen, some watch what happens, and the rest wonder what happened

Let’s get to see what fresh air feels like. And get to feel a sense of pride with this basic move forward, because there are many other things we must work together on, and move out of the third world status as winners. Let’s make it happen.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publication.