The Government of the Indian state of Delhi has ordered this Saturday the closure of schools, has ruled the obligation to work from home for civil servants and has paralyzed the construction sector due to air pollution. The Supreme Court of India has declared New Delhi and the surrounding areas an emergency area due to air pollution, so dense that residents have to wear a mask inside their homes. About 25 million people live in the area.
The Chief Minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal, explained this Saturday that it will switch to the online education system for at least a week from Monday to prevent minors from being exposed to polluted air. In addition, the staff of public institutions must work from home during the same week and the private sector is recommended to do the same. In construction, a sector that generates suspended pollution, all activity is prohibited from Monday to Wednesday, Kejriwal explained.
The Supreme Court had asked the Delhi administration to adopt urgent measures and recommends the partial closure of traffic or even a confinement of the population for two days, in the words of Chief Magistrate NV Ramana collected this Saturday by the news portal 24×7 Live India. The air quality index in the state of Delhi reached 415 units this Saturday morning, well above the level considered dangerous to health, according to the Swiss organization IQAir, in charge of measuring pollution levels around the world.
Part of this pollution is due to the burning of crop residues in the fields of the Indian capital, but also to the excessive dependence on fossil fuels, which cover three-quarters of the country’s energy needs. Air pollution costs Indian businesses about € 90 billion a year, roughly 3% of their Gross Domestic Product, according to Europa Press calculations.
Less than two months ago, the World Health Organization (WHO) tightened air quality indicators for the main air pollutants, which implies setting stricter safety thresholds for four harmful substances, most linked to the burning of biomass and fossil fuels – oil, gas and coal. The previous guidelines were established in 2005 and more than 15 years later the WHO decides to give them a twist and put pressure on the governments of the world to fight against a scourge that each year causes around seven million premature deaths and serious health problems. health, as recalled by this organization linked to the United Nations. The step taken by this agency puts combustion engine vehicles in the spotlight.
The greatest reduction is made in the case of nitrogen dioxide: until now it was considered that the safety threshold was at an annual exposure of 40 micrograms per cubic meter. The new guidelines lower it to 10 micrograms per cubic meter. Regarding particles, which also originate in traffic, the WHO cut the maximum recommended annual exposure in half: in PM₂, ₅ goes from a value of 10 micrograms per cubic meter to five. For the largest particles, PM₁₀, the annual limit goes from 20 micrograms per cubic meter to 15.
In the State of Delhi, this Saturday the levels of fine particles in suspension PM₂, ₅ have reached over 300 micrograms per cubic meter (µg / m³), that is, 30 times more than what was recommended before and 60 times more than recommended now by WHO. According to IQAir, at 4:00 p.m. (Spanish time) the PM₂, ₅ still exceeded 172 µg / m³, while the PM₁₀ reached 391.5 µg / m³.
In 2020, IQAir produced a report showing that 22 of the 30 most polluted cities in the world are in India and New Delhi is the most polluted capital on the planet. In 2019, pollution caused 1.67 million deaths in India, including about 17,500 deaths in the capital, according to the medical journal. The Lancet.
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