The Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) has failed to take any action on the formation of air action plan to improve the air quality index in the city.
The ministry of environment had released a draft of the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) in April this year. In the draft, Guwahati had featured among the ‘non-attainment cities’ along with Nagaon, Nalbari, Sibsagar and Silchar from Assam. A total of 94 cities had earlier been identified as non-attainment cities.
The NCAP is a national programme to tackle the increasing air pollution across the country. It suggests several measures to reduce air pollution levels in a collaborative approach.
Non-attainment cities are those cities in which the prescribed Ambient Air Quality Standards as set by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) are violated.
Accordingly, Guwahati was mandated to make the air action plan to better its air quality. For this, the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) had collaborated with Clean Air Asia (CAA) – an international non-profit organisation in order to bring down the levels of air pollution in the city. The NGO works in the field of bettering the air quality in Asian cities and began its operations in India two years ago.
CAA had also prepared a detailed action plan for the same and suggested a slew of measures to improve the air quality of Guwahati.
However, CAA officials have informed that GMC has not shown any interest in the air action plan after the initial interactions.
“We did not receive any response from them after that and we don’t want to independently work without involving the government authorities,” CAA’s India director Prarthana Borah told G Plus.
She added that they had suggested installing some sensors in the city which would help in monitoring data related to air pollution levels.
However, a senior official in the GMC said that the collaboration plans with CAA did not move further after February since the concerned official who was overseeing the project, was transferred.
The NGO had also offered to set up a low-cost system to monitor air pollution in Guwahati and make the data accessible to all, according to officials. This was done with a view to encourage public engagement with respect to air pollution data.
This monitoring system would have enabled city residents to get information on the quality of air on a day to day basis and would have provided data about poor air quality index.
Earlier, the GMC officials had also emphasised on the need to make people more aware with regards to the air quality index in the city.
Environmental concerns
Experts working in this field are of the opinion that even though Guwahati’s pollution levels have not reached an alarming stage yet, it is imperative to take measures to maintain a good air quality index especially keeping in mind the fragile ecology of the place.
According to a report by the Assam Science Technology and Environment Council (ASTEC), air quality monitoring station at Bamunimaidam revealed the presence of respirable suspended particulate matter (RSPM) and suspended particulate matter (SPM) well above the prescribe limit since 2008.
The presence of sulphur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen was, however, within the permissible limits at all the monitoring stations.
The report goes on to say that Guwahati has one of the highest black carbon pollution levels in the country which is due to rapid urbanization and poor environment quality control.
In the draft NCAP list, Maharashtra has the maximum number of 17 non-attainment cities. Further, from the Northeast apart from five cities from Assam, there are two cities from Nagaland, and one from Meghalaya.
Clean Air Asia officials informed that they are already working with different cities such as Dehradun and Bhubaneswar to develop their air action plan.
Further, officials informed that the non-availability of data regarding air pollution is a major impediment for the authorities in Guwahati. Currently, there is only one continuous monitoring station for PM 2.5 which is why people do not have access to data related to air quality index.
Currently, only the head office of Pollution Control Board of Assam at Bamunimaidam has installed the meter to measure PM 2.5 particles. The other five National Air Quality Monitoring Programme (NAMO) stations in the city measure PM 10 particles.
PM 2.5 are fine particulate matters suspended in the air measuring two and a half microns or less. Presence of high levels of PM 2.5 in the air reduces visibility and causes the air to appear hazy and can pose serious health-related risks among people including respiratory issues.
Officials informed that since there is only one meter to record PM 2.5 particles in the city, mobile apps on air quality index don’t have data related to Guwahati as there is no continuous data being uploaded.
