CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board is now preparing a revised action plan for Thoothukudi, the sole city from Tamil Nadu which figures in the list of 102 cities that have been found by Union Ministry of Environment and Climate Change to have high levels of air pollution with the presence of Particulate Matter (PM) 10, Sulphur dioxide (SO2) and Nitrogen dioxide (NO2).
This comes after Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) rejected the initial city action plan prepared by the board after National Green Tribunal on October 8, 2018 asked all States and Union Territories with non-attainment cities to constitute Air Quality Monitoring Committee and come out with an action plan by January end.
The plan was to be prepared to bring standards of air quality within the prescribed norms within six months from the date of finalisation of the report. “The initial report was inadequate; as such we are preparing a new detailed report which is under process”, said a top environment official.
Board sources told Express that the three-member committee which was to examine the action plans and recommend to the Chairman of Central Pollution Control Board to approve it, has termed it inadequate.
“They want the Source Apportionment Study, that is the percentage of pollution from various sources. We may be taking the help of Anna University or Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) to conduct the study,” a TNPCB source said.
The Committee has also recommended that TNPCB should also come out with a Graded Response Action Plan similar to that of Delhi. The Action Plan has been prepared for implementation under different Air Quality Index (AQI) categories namely, Moderate & Poor, Very Poor, and Severe as per National Air Quality Index. A new category of “Severe+ or Emergency” has also been added. It has also recommended interim emissions reduction target to be specified.
“This could take at least 12 weeks and we have asked time from Central Pollution Control Board,” a TNPCB official said.
Thoothukudi has a lot of red industries as a result of which the PM 10 – tiny airborne particles seven times finer than human hair – exceeds national standards (60 micrograms per cubic metre, or µg/m³) by around 200 per cent. Environmentalists blame public and private coal-fired thermal power plants, copper smelter and chemical industries for polluting the air quality of Thoothukudi.
According to a study ‘Assessment of Air Quality Index for Cities and Major Towns in Tamil Nadu’ published in Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering in March 2018, the air quality index of Thoothukudi is in the range of 25-167 and the cause of high level of PM10 is due to the presence of major power plants, copper smelter plant, fertiliser plant and other units.
The city is termed one of the non-attainment cities by Ministry of Environment primarily on the basis of excess PM10 under the National Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Program (NAMP), which monitors PM10, SO2 and NO2 parameters. About 30 per cent of the respiratory diseases are related to personal exposure to high-level ambient PM concentrations. PM10 can be breathed into the lungs, and therefore, its health effects are more severe than large particles.