KOCHI:
Kochi is breathing easy after inhaling for nearly 12 days toxic smoke that the fire at the Brahmapuram waste yard threw up. The city’s air quality improved further after the rain Wednesday night with the monitoring station at Vyttila reflecting the change, even on Thursday.
According to the Central Pollution Control Board, the ambient air quality (AQI) that stood at 180 with PM2.5 of 322 ug/m3 (micrograms/cubic metre) on March 12, dropped to 75 with PM2.5 count of 150 ug/m3 on Thursday.
This is considerably lower than the AQI readings at Pollution Control Board’s monitoring station at Vyttila on March 1, a day before the fire broke out. AQI on March 1 stood at 134 with PM2.5 at a high of 303 ug/m3. Did the rain on Wednesday help bring down AQI levels? According to Baburajan P K, chief environmental engineer, Kerala State Pollution Control Board, the rain may have played some role.
“However, AQI values were dropping as the fire was being doused and smoke subsided,” he said. As for the monitoring of AQI at Brahmapuram, he said, “Mobile units placed in and around the yard will continue to monitor the air quality for three more days before being recalled.”
Echoing his views, Dr Anand Madhavan, assistant professor at Cusat’s School of Environment Studies, said, “Rain did play a role in washing down the pollutants in the air, which directly led to a drop in AQI values. The present values are the result of exhaust fumes and emissions from industrial units.”
Open dumpyards are a constant source of pollutants, says expert
Though we can heave a sigh of relief that AQI values have improved, it is not good news when we consider the havoc the pollutants washed down will wreak on groundwater and other water sources, said Dr Anand Madhavan, assistant professor at Cusat’s School of Environment Studies.
“Brahmapuram is an open dumpyard, that is being called a treatment plant! And in the case of such places, one can’t say that pollution happens just because of an incident like a fire. These open dumpyards are a constant source of pollutants.
Every day, methane, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and other harmful greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere. Then there is the issue of the toxic chemicals from the plastic waste leaching into the groundwater and water bodies,” Dr Anand said. Ultimately, if a solution is not found to deal with the waste scientifically, the garbage that we dump at Brahmapuram will come back to haunt us, he added.