NEW DELHI: Amongst the cities listed under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) for targeted reduction in pollution levels, Ghaziabad is the most polluted city in the northern region, closely followed by Delhi, said a countrywide analysis released by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) on Tuesday.
The analysis released on the eve of the UN International Day of Clean Air for Blue Sky, says there is barely any difference in overall PM2.5 (particulate matter 2.5) trends between cities under NCAP and those outside its ambit.
The NCAP has set a national level target of 20%-30% reduction in PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations by 2024 from the 2017 base year. But, a latest performance assessment of NCAP cities by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) for disbursement of performance-linked funds has considered only PM10 data that is largely coarse dust particles. As the monitoring of PM2.5 -- the tinier particles that are much more harmful -- is limited, a uniform assessment of cities based on PM2.5 reduction has not been considered for performance assessment, the analysis said.
“Dependence on only manual monitoring of PM10 evidently creates a bias in spending as it shifts focus more towards dust control and detracts attention from composite action on industry, vehicles, waste and solid fuel burning,” says Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director, research and advocacy at CSE. The NCAP covers 132 cities ---- 82 of these have been funded under it, while 50 cities have received funds from the 15th Finance Commission; `6,425 crore has been released till 2021-22 and `2,299 crore has been earmarked for 2022-23.
The CPCB classifies cities that have their annual average higher than 1.5 times the annual standard as critically polluted. In 2021, 20 NCAP cities and 24 non-NCAP cities qualified as critically polluted – this means there are more critically polluted cities that are not covered by NCAP than there under the programme, the report said.
However, only 16 non-NCAP cities meet the standard -- 13 of them are located in south India, it said.
Both NCAP and non-NCAP cities need substantial reductions to meet the national ambient air quality standards, the report showed.
“It is clear that the current practice of keeping the focus only on selected cities without considering the larger urban and regional landscape can limit the effectiveness of the NCAP programme and resource investment. The current mandate of developing state action plans has to be refined to ensure regional approach is initiated for a wider impact,” said Roychowdhury.
As the current focus of NCAP is to reduce particulate pollution, an immediate strategy is needed to consider PM2.5 data for performance assessment of cities. PM2.5, being smaller, is more harmful as it penetrates deep inside the lungs. The larger share of PM2.5 is emitted by combustion sources including vehicles, industry, power plants, waste and solid fuel burning, she added.
The plight of Pollution
An analysis released by CSE reveals that both NCAP and non-NCAP cities are more or less equally polluted PM 2.5 levels in all these cities need to be brought down at least by 50% to meet national ambient air quality standards
Region-wise:
Northern states: Ghaziabad is the most polluted NCAP city in the north, closely followed by Delhi. There are 16 non-NCAP cities that exceed the regional average compared to eight NCAP cities.
Eastern states:
Patna is the most polluted NCAP city in the east, followed by Muzaffarpur and Durgapur. Hajipur and Siliguri are the most polluted non-NCAP cities. This is the only region where no city, NCAP or non-NCAP, meets the annual standard.
Western states:
Jodhpur is the most polluted NCAP city in the west, followed by Kota and Jaipur. Bhiwadi -- though a non-NCAP city -- is still the most polluted in the region. Ankleshwar and Vatva in Gujarat are worse than most NCAP cities of the region as well.
Southern states:
Visakhapatnam is the most polluted NCAP city in the south, followed by Hyderabad. All the other cities in the region, NCAP and non-NCAP, meet the annual standard