When Shri Modiji says , “ Look East “ , it is for a good reason
Following news reports
prove his point :
COMPARE and CONTRAST :
IN
MAHARASHTRA :
Around 6.7
million children below five years of
age in Maharashtra are inhaling particulate matter (PM10) that is above the
permissible limits set by the law, revealed the second edition
of air quality report in India by Greenpeace India on Monday.
The report also said 1.4 million of
these children are exposed to twice the pollution standards.
Additionally, 2.6
million children live in
districts where there are no air-quality monitoring stations.
Exposure to high levels of
PM10 — they are fine harmful solid and liquid particles floating in the air
with a diameter of 10 microns — leads to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases,
and premature death.
“It’s time we understand the sources of
pollution. While India does have guidelines for outdoor pollution, we need to
study indoor air pollution, which is a much-neglected issue right now that has
no prescribed emission limits,” said Avick Sil, regional director, Environment
Policy and Research India, who was not part of the Greenpeace study.
“Similar to measuring
ground-level ozone, there is a need to also study particulate matter at the
ground level. A comprehensive air pollution mitigation policy can be thought of
only if we look at both forms of pollution,” he said.
Across India, about 47 million children below 5 years live in areas where
PM10 levels exceeded annual air pollution limits, including 17
million children under the same age in areas where pollution levels are more
than twice the prescribed limits.
The latest version of the
Airpocalypse II report, which analysed PM10 annual average of 280 cities across
India with a population of 630 million, found that in 2016, none of the 24 cities and towns
across Maharashtra with air quality monitoring facilities complied with the
annual PM10 air quality standards set by the Central Pollution Control
Board (CPCB).
Six of the 24 locations
recorded annual PM10 levels twice the permissible limit of 60 micrograms per
cubic metre (ug/m3) by CPCB, and almost seven times above the standard of 20ug/m3 by the
World Health Organisation.
Nanded recorded the highest
annual PM 10 levels at 151ug/m3, followed by Dombivali (140ug/m3), Mumbai
(130ug/m3), Akola (123ug/m3), Badlapur (122ug/m3), and Ambernath (121ug/m3)
In addition to Mumbai, the
annual PM10 levels for other major cities of Maharashtra stood at 117ug/3 at
Thane followed by Pune (99ug/m3), Nashik (86ug/m3), Nagpur (82ug/m3), Navi
Mumbai (93%), and Panvel (118ug/m3).
“This report, which is second
in the series after last year, once again raises an alarm for regions like
Maharashtra where the air pollution situation is already at hazardous levels
and increasing day by day,” said Sunil Dahiya, senior campaigner, Greenpeace
India.
Dahiya added, “Cities like
Mumbai should lead by examples of not being on list of most polluted and
unhealthy cities to live in, but in being the cities where clean air,
environment and health is prioritized to provide better quality of life for
public.”
In 2017, the MPCB, based on
the National Clean Air Programme, started the process of formulating an action
plans to mitigate air pollution for multiple cities in the state. “We have had
consultation meetings with various stakeholders and agencies such as municipal
corporation, National Environmental Engineering Research Institute and the
Indian Institute of Technology - Bombay. We are in the process of drafting an
action plan,” said VM Mothghare, joint director, MPCB.
The Greenpeace India report
used monthly PM10 data for 2016 from the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board
(MPCB), and 65 manual and continuous air quality monitoring stations. The
report found that 23 states had no real-time air quality monitoring data
available to citizens – highest real-time coverage was found in Delhi followed
by Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.
IN BEIJING
:
Beijing, which suffered heavy
pollution for years, plans to spend over 19 billion yuan (about $3 billion) to
reduce air pollution in the Chinese capital this year.
It marks a yearly increase of
590 million yuan, according to statistics released at the on going annual
session of the 15th Beijing Municipal People’s Congress.
The money will be used to
control pollution sources such as coal, vehicles and dust, and to support
projects to replace coal with clean energy in rural areas, according to a draft
of the 2018 Beijing budget report.
The smog-prone Chinese
capital has intensified measures in recent years to improve its air quality. So
far this year Beijing has more clear sunny days than compared to the previous
years though smog reappears when there was no heavy wind.
In 2017, Beijing switched 901
villages from reliance on coal to clean energy and phased out nearly half a
million out-dated vehicles.
Almost no coal consumption
takes place in Beijing’s six districts and its southern plain areas, state- run
Xinhua news agency reported.
The average density of PM 2.5
in Beijing was 58 micrograms per cubic meter last year, meeting the target set
by the State Council, and 20.5
per cent less than in 2016.
According to the municipal
congress, Beijing plans to invest more than 67 billion yuan for environmental
protection this year in sectors such as air pollution, water and soil
improvement, as well as integrated garbage treatment.
================================
Dear Shri Devendra Fadnavisji
,
I have no doubt you too could
bring about even better improvements if you make up your mind to save millions
of young lives
And funds cannot be a
constraint, considering that Mumbai Municipal Corporation is sitting on a pile
of cash – Rs 74,000 Cr ( approx. $ 12 billion ) – as fixed deposits in various
banks ( - earning Rs 7,000 cr by way of interest , annually )
There can be no better way to
put this to use !
31 Jan 2018
www.hemenparekh.in /
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