Yahoo – AFP,
November 9, 2017
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| Low winds and the annual post-harvest burning of crop stubble have caused the levels of dangerous pollutants in the air to spike to many times the levels considered safe (AFP Photo/NARINDER NANU) |
New Delhi
(AFP) - New Delhi banned all construction, barred lorries from entering the
city and announced stringent restrictions on private car use on Thursday,
seeking to combat a massive spike in pollution across large swathes of India
and Pakistan.
Tens of
thousands of schools in Delhi and surrounding states remained closed as a
hazardous fog of toxic pollution cloaked the region for a third day, bringing
growing calls for urgent government action to tackle what doctors are calling a
public health emergency.
"The
situation in Delhi is so bad and if the pollution can be brought down in any
way, we will do it," the city's transport minister Kailash Gahlot told
reporters as he announced plans to limit private car use to alternate days from
next Monday.
Authorities
in the city had earlier ordered a ban on all construction work and barred
lorries from entering the city as public pressure on the government mounted.
Around
50,000 mostly diesel-fuelled lorries pass through India's capital every night
and they are a major contributor to the pollution plaguing the city.
Air quality
typically worsens before the onset of winter as cooler air traps pollutants
near the ground and prevents them from dispersing into the atmosphere, a
phenomenon known as inversion.
Low winds
and the annual post-harvest burning of crop stubble in the northern farming
states of Punjab and Hariyana have caused the levels of dangerous pollutants in
the air to spike to many times the levels considered safe.
Figures on
the US embassy website showed levels of PM2.5 -- the smallest particulates that
cause most damage to health -- spiked at over 1,000 on Wednesday afternoon in
Delhi, though by Thursday afternoon they had fallen to 400.
The World
Health Organization's guidelines say 25 is the maximum level of PM2.5 anyone
can safely be exposed to over a 24-hour period.
Doctors say
the microscopic particles can penetrate deep into the lungs, increasing the
risk of heart attacks and strokes.
 |
Chart
showing air quality readings from New Delhi where schools were ordered
shut as
pollution levels went off the scale. (AFP Photo/Nick SHEARMAN)
|
"Delhi
once again has become a veritable gas chamber with denizens finding it
difficult to breathe," The Times of India said Thursday, joining growing
calls for government action to curb the chronic pollution, which the Indian
Medical Association this week termed a public health emergency.
"Air
pollution during winter months has become a catastrophe for large parts of
north India," the country's most read English-language newspaper said in
an editorial blaming "political apathy".
'Burning
in my eyes'
In
neighbouring Pakistan's second largest city Lahore, near the Indian border,
hundreds flocked to hospitals seeking treatment for respiratory illnesses and
eye infections caused by the pollution.
The
PakAirQuality network, which publishes unofficial air reports on social media,
said the concentration of PM 2.5 in the city had topped 300.
Motorcycle
riders wore green face masks and goggles as they tried to cope with the smog,
but for some the protection was not enough.
"I am
feeling burning in my eyes," said labourer Zawar Hussain. "I will
visit a doctor in the evening."
It is the
second year running that Delhi -- now the world's most polluted capital with
air quality worse than Beijing -- has faced such high levels of PM2.5.
Media
reports said the thick smog had also led to a series of road accidents in north
India.
Eight
students were killed late Wednesday when a truck ploughed into them as they
waited for a bus on a roadside in Punjab.
Since 2014,
when WHO figures showed the extent of the crisis, authorities in Delhi have
closed power plants temporarily and experimented with taking some cars off the
road.
But the
temporary measures have had little effect.
Under
pressure to respond, Delhi's Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday sought
to blame stubble burning by farmers in neighbouring states.
"We we
will continue facing this every year until the neighbouring state governments
resolve the issue of crop burning," he told reporters in Delhi.
The
practice of burning crop stubble remains commonplace in north India despite an
official ban.
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