Air Quality - Key Issues and Root Causes

Issues & Causes. 1. Emission free vehicles are pricy. Average Indian would not spare some more money out of his pocket. Hence lots of unwanted carbon emissions. 2. Lorries and heavy vehicles emit black smoke/ carbons, making fellow two wheeler riders immediately trying to close their nose & mouth. 3. Concrete gardens devoid greenery plays havoc to absorption of Carbon di oxide and releasing of Oxygen. 4. Industrial pollution. 5. Worn out machinery at home--Refrigerators working for more than a decade--contribute much to Ozone Depletions and emissions into atmosphere. 6.Public transport is not attractive enough to keep lots private vehicles off road. Lots of private transport means lot more of air pollution. 7. Green house gases released contribute to air pollution. 8.Periodic servicing of our automobiles shall avert some of these issues. more  

Pollution differs from place to place and causes of pollution are many. Therefore I propose to discuss one or two issues pertaining to the place I live though there are many. 1. In my city though there is sea shore and a road adjacent to the sea it will be clean and neat without any soil as Municipality ensures its cleanliness by employing several persons for removing sand from time to time. However in case other roads there will be plenty of soil on the roads i.e. on both sides as well as in the middle which flies with the breeze and vehicle movement causing considerable harm to lungs and probably the quantum of soil will be equivalent to the soil in the sea shore. The cause for such soil is mainly due to works undertaken by civic authorities. In case of a small work the roads dug will not be closed for months together resulting in spreading of soil on the roads and in case of big works the removal is under taken by machines which will not take entire soil but leave some thing like one to two inches soil left out which also spreads out. As these works are perennial even if it is cleaned once it creates the same situation once another work is taken up. I personally feel this can be solved only if the work supervisors ensure proper removal of soil after digging the roads for total removal of soil. 2. It is certain that vehicle population creates air pollution which cannot be avoided but it can be reduced. Every vehicle manufacturer prescribes the speed limit at which it gives maximum mileage and in such circumstances the pollution ought to be less. However, the following conditions makes it impossible to travel at specific speed and reduce the pollution. a. Very bad roads which did not allow vehicles to move at that speed. b. Even where the roads are good the drainage hole caps are kept either at a hight or below road level by six inches or more resulting in careful driving resulting in much lower speed than normal speed c. Non synchronisation of signals resulting in stopping of vehicles at each signal resulting creation of pollution for longer time. In case signals are synchronised this can come down. more  

Air Quality in Delhi rather in all metros is poor because of the following 1.All sewerage systems have been built without keeping in view the gravity of the system in view and with keeping the topography insight. 2.People in India still do not know how to use underground sewerage system they throw the solid waste into the system 3. Roads are not properly cleaned and raising the dust clouds. 4. No municipality has a system of disposal of solid waste like bricks, plaster etc. 5. PUC norms are not properly implemented by the police. 6. Clear fuels are not available in the market. 7.Tree are cut recklessly particularly by the Govt. more  

Delhi was never designed for supporting such a large population. Previous BJP Government took the decision to increase number of floors from three to four without taking in to account that infrastructure was not designed to take such load. We have two options: Learn to live with respiratory disesses with a shorter life span, if one decides to live in Delhi or Enforce the law strictly and take following actions: (a) Remove all illegal structures and colonies in Delhi; (b) All structures which violate construction norms to be compliant within one to two years; (c) Close all establishments (private or Government) which are violating any law and connot be sustained if the laws are substantially implemented; (d) No regularisation of illegal colonies as these would result in environment load which existing infrastructure cannot sustain; (e) No parking of personal or commercial vehicles to be allowed on public land. Parking in residential areas on road side to be allowed only on payment of substantial contribution to the resident welfare association as the common space is being used for personal purpose; (f) Reduce the number of Government establishments in Delhi to bare minimum. Shift these out to Near by area or to any new location; (g) Reduce indirect subsidies in the form of cheaper products and services by the Government (Delhi Milk Scheme, Delhi Transport Corporation, Delhi Jal Board charging subsidised rates); (h) Reduce the artificially created price differential between diesel and petrol price by imposing equal taxes on both the fuels. . more  

1. Travel to office work is to be pooled in one car to reduce pollution level and adopting economy measures which will reduce consumption of fuel also. 2. Plying of trucks in the busy roads need to be stopped by providing separate routes for trucks and buses. This will avoid pollution in the city busy areas. 3. The outdated/obsolete vehicles to be scrapped which are plying on the roads which create great noise and increase pollution level. The plying of such vehicles should be stopped by putting strict rules to discourage polluting vehicles. 4. Garbage clearance in the city and rural areas and villages to be implemented strictly to keep the areas free from all dirty wastages lying in the road sides. The waste garbage need to be used for producing gas by installing equipments in the specified areas to avoid pollution and maintaining cleanliness in India. 5. The methods adopted in Germany can be implemented in India also to keep the country too clean. 6. Disposing of waste in the dust bin boxes only to be encouraged instead of keeping wastes in road sides in plastic packets by the residents in India. Providing dust bin boxes in the cities and all the areas to be arranged by the City Corporation units. more