Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Air pollution is choking several cities' that was published in Newsband

Air pollution is choking several cities

The burning of agricultural residue is causing air pollution. The problem is aggravated by the burning of urban waste, diesel soot, vehicular exhaust, road and construction dust, and power generation. Although India has nine of the 10 most polluted cities in the world, it has not taken consistent action on pollution. India should at least now give high importance to the WHO warning about air pollution being the new tobacco.

The Centre and the State governments need to get into crisis mode to dramatically reduce emissions. They must address the burning of carbon, and emissions with oxides of nitrogen and sulphur from vehicles. Failure to take sustainable and urgent measures will inflict long-term harm on public health, affecting children even more

The UN Environment Programme’s recent report titled ‘Air Pollution in Asia and the Pacific: Science-Based Solutions’ has sounded a warning, pointing out that only 8% of the population in the countries of the region get to breathe air of acceptable quality.

An innovative approach could be to use climate change funds to turn farm residues into a resource, using technological options such as converting them into biofuels and fertilizers. Large cities should reorient their investments to prioritise public transport, favouring electric mobility. The World Bank has said it is keen to enhance its lending portfolio to tackle air pollution. Governments should make the use of personal vehicles in cities less attractive

The air pollution is not confined to cities these days. It spreads to towns and villages too. Particulate matter status grows acute in semiurban space due to unprecedented spurt in the number of road vehicles. Non implantation of regulations in precluding the over aged vehicles on roads add to the exacerbation of atmospheric contamination in the country.

With this severe pollution our younger generation are suffering with bad health conditions. Government has to take proactive measure to curb residue burning. Government should work with several NGOs to implement social awareness programmes to encourage farmer to use alternative measure to rejuvenate farm field.

There is a need to take strong action against air pollution. For this, the government should bring attitude-change in common people. People have to be made aware about sanitation. People may use public transport and electric vehicle. Continuous burning of straws and air pollution caused by diesel and petrol is immense, thanks to the crores of auto vehicles plying. Unless and otherwise proper control on the vehicles road is made the problem will aggravate in big dimension causing severe health issues to people especially children. Regarding straw it may be constructively used for making fertiliser and manufacturing insulators.