New Delhi sees new peak in air pollution

Photo: Sajjad Hussain Agence France-Presse Many residents of the Indian capital cannot afford air purifiers and live in homes with little insulation from the outside.

Bhuvan Bagga – Agence France-Presse in New Delhi

Posted at 9:19 a.m.

• Asia

Air pollution reached a new worrying peak on Monday in the Indian capital New Delhi, drowned in a fog as opaque as it was toxic, forcing the authorities to close most schools.

Air concentrations of PM 2.5 microparticles reached levels up to 60 times higher than the thresholds recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) in the morning, according to measurements by the company IQAir.

The megalopolis of 30 million inhabitants faces episodes of hyperpollution every winter caused by the usual fumes from factories and road traffic, in addition to those from seasonal agricultural burning.

The toxic lid spilled out of New Delhi on Monday to cover much of northern India. Visitors to the Taj Mahal in Agra flooded social media with photos of the famous white marble monument shrouded in mist.

After a brief respite, residents of neighboring Pakistan's second city, Lahore, were once again breathing air Monday that was described as “hazardous.”

“Smog” is blamed by experts for thousands of premature deaths each year.

“My eyes have been burning for days,” Subodh Kumar, 30, who drives a pedal taxi (rickshaw, told AFP. “But pollution or not, I have to be on the road,” he added, “my life […] is outside.”

“I’ve never seen anything like this in the forty years I’ve lived here,” Scottish historian William Dalrymple wrote on his X account, comparing the Indian capital to a “death trap.”

Local authorities triggered level 4 of their alert plan on Sunday evening “to prevent further deterioration of air quality.”

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Photo: Money Sharma Agence France-Presse A study published in the medical journal Lancet attributed the deaths of 1.67 million Indians in 2019 to poor air quality.

“Affected Education”

“In-person classes will be suspended for all students except grades 10 and 12” at the high school, the local chief executive, Atishi, who goes by one name, ordered.

Primary schools have been closed since last week.

“Children's education will be affected because not all of them will be able to follow online classes,” said a mother, Huma Naaz, whose son attends school in New Delhi on Monday.

All construction sites have also been suspended and the movement of heavy goods vehicles and the most polluting vehicles has been severely restricted.

The local government has also urged children, the elderly and anyone suffering from medical conditions pulmonary and/or cardiac conditions to “stay indoors as much as possible.”

Many residents of the Indian capital cannot afford air purifiers and live in homes with poor insulation.

“Who can afford an air purifier when they are struggling to pay their bills?,” said Rinku Kumar, 45, a tuk-tuk driver, a three-wheeled motorized taxi.

“Rich ministers and senior civil servants can afford to stay indoors, but ordinary people like us cannot,” he added.

According to the WHO, air pollution can cause cardiovascular, respiratory and lung cancer diseases.

“Government does nothing”

A study published in the medical journal Lancet attributed the deaths of 1.67 million Indians in 2019 to poor air quality.

India’s Supreme Court on Monday ordered authorities to take “all possible steps” against pollution, arguing that it is their “constitutional obligation” to “ensure that citizens live in a healthy atmosphere.”

Preventative measures implemented so far by both national and local authorities have so far proved largely ineffective.

The “chief minister” of New Delhi on Monday once again blamed agricultural burning in states neighbouring the capital.

“The national government is doing nothing. Today the whole of northern India is in a medical emergency,” lamented Atishi, who is from the opposition to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“All night I received phone calls from people who had to hospitalize elderly people for respiratory problems,” she lamented to the press.

After encouraging motorists to turn off their engines at red lights, the New Delhi municipality tested a filtering tower in 2021, quickly abandoned, and is now considering using drones to water the most polluted areas.

“Half-measures,” denounce environmental protection NGOs, which advocate “stopping emissions at their base.”