India: in the face of air pollution, New Delhi takes emergency measures

Published on : 11/17/2021 – 10:05

The Indian capital is reducing its activities due to poor air quality. The city government of New Delhi on Tuesday (November 16th) announced its decision to close its schools until further notice and urged its residents to work from home to deal with the dangerous level of air pollution.

The air quality deteriorates seriously every winter in this city of more than 20 million inhabitants, one of the most polluted in the world, which then finds itself enveloped in a thick fog of pollution.

Saturday, November 13, the municipality had already ordered the closure of schools for a week and prohibited all construction for four days.

Tuesday evening, the commission in charge of air quality in Delhi decreed the closure of schools until further notice.

Heavy goods vehicles are also prohibited from entering the capital until November 21, except for those carrying basic necessities, and most construction sites have been suspended, according to the decree.

Pollution fog cannons and sprinklers will kick in at least three times a day in the most polluted neighborhoods.

Six of the eleven thermal power plants located within a radius of 300 kilometers have been ordered to cease functioning until further notice.

Supreme Court calls for “containment due to pollution”

The commission also said at least half of civil servants will have to work from home and private sector employees are encouraged to do the same.

These measures came 24 hours after the Delhi government decided to resist an appeal by the Supreme Court for “containment due to pollution”.

This air pollution comes, among other things, from smoke from agricultural burns in neighboring states.

However, the government argued to the Supreme Court that industry was primarily responsible for pollution followed by transport and dust from roads and construction sites.

This week, the level of fine particles PM2.5, the most dangerous for health, exceeded 400 in several areas of the city.

Last week, it climbed to 500, more than 30 times the maximum limit set by the World Health Organization.

According to the medical journal The Lancet, in 2020, nearly 17,500 people died in Delhi due to air pollution.

The Indian capital is the most polluted in the world according to a report by the Swiss organization IQAir published in 2020.

With AFP