AQI better than expected because most people didn’t burst firecrackers: Rai

NEW DELHI: As Delhi’s average Air Quality Index AQI started to improve after touching a peak of 362 on Friday, the city’s environment minister Gopal Rai said the air pollution level remained under control in Delhi this Diwali because the residents, barring a few places in the city, celebrated the festival by lighting lamps and not firecrackers.
The minister also said that the government hoped that it would be able to convince the people who burst crackers this year to refrain from doing so next Diwali.
“The people of Delhi have been able to check pollution post-Diwali. Firecrackers were not burnt at a very large scale. It indicates that the thinking of the people of Delhi is changing… We hope that people who burst crackers will be able to understand that while it is important to celebrate the festival, it is also important to save the lives of people. Slowly, the support of people is increasing (in the fight against pollution,” Gopal Rai said, asserting that the air quality on Friday was better than widely expected.
According to Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data, Delhi’s AQI remained steady at 327 between 6pm and 9pm on Thursday, before rising every hour. It touched 330 at 10pm, 338 at midnight and 347 by 3am.
The average AQI on Diwali day was 328 (very poor).
The average AQI peaked at 362 (very poor) at 9am on Friday before declining to 360 at 10am, 356 at 11am, and 354 at 12 pm.
The CPCB classifies AQI between 0-50 as “good”, 51 and 100 as “satisfactory”, 101 and 200 as “moderate”, 201 and 300 as “poor”, 301 and 400 as “very poor”, and over 400 as “severe”.
An India Meteorological Department official attributed the improvement in air quality the day after Diwali to strong winds and higher-than-normal temperatures at this time of the year. “Winds were around 12-16km/hr till 6 pm on Thursday. It dipped marginally towards the night, but was still between 3 and 7 km/hr. On Friday morning, wind speed was around 10 km/hr,” the official said. Strong winds help in the dispersion of pollutants.
Rai said the AQI has been in the very poor category for the last several days and the pollution levels the day after Diwali seemed to be under control.
“The AQI has slightly risen…we need to work on a war footing to ensure that the pollution levels does not drop to severe levels. The government is going to start a special drive of water sprinkling throughout the city so that the pollution levels remain under control,” said Rai.
Forecasts by the Centre’s Early Warning System for Delhi (EWS) had projected ‘very poor’ air quality the day after Diwali but warned that AQI could drop sharply to “severe” if there were additional emissions from firecrackers or smoke from stubble burning.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and south Delhi MP Ramvir Singh Bidhuri said the city’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was misleading people because local sources of pollution were primarily responsible for air pollution in the national capital, and not a few hours of people bursting firecrackers.
The reality is that the government has not taken any concrete steps to check the major sources of pollution in Delhi such as dust, the vehicular pollution because of the collapse of public infrastructure and the open burning of waste.
“The roads are in bad shape throughout Delhi which is leading to dust pollution. The broken footpaths also cause dust pollution which is getting complicated after AAP came to power in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) because the AAP-led MCD is not cleaning the roads,” he said.
Bidhuri said the city also faces a serious public transport crisis because there was a shortage of buses in reliable working conditions, forcing people to use their personal vehicles which add to the city’s pollution load.
“The AAP government has also been unable to check open waste burning. For the last around 15 days, the air quality of Delhi has been in poor category, many people are suffering from cough, difficulty in breathing and chest infections while the AAP government is busy in doing politics,” said Bidhuri in a statement