Particulate Matter Residential Homes Delhi – Environmental And Population Health Issues

Delhi and its environment

Discuss About The Particulate Matter Residential Homes Delhi.

 India is the emerging economy and consists of megacities like Delhi. In the research it was found that it is the highest polluted city in the world in fact the most polluted city in India [1]. The population living there are in high risk of many types of health issues which may arise due to pollution. Asthma and lungs related disease are very common in such type of environment. This can be understood by the fact that there are many people who are suffering from environment related health issues. There are various sources of this pollution and are releasing the gas that is highly dangerous for the health of the population living there. This report highlights the contemporary population and environmental health issues affecting the megacity like Delhi. It also provides examples related to current projects, plans and policies that are implemented for addressing the obstacles and challenges faced by them.

Delhi is one of the oldest cities in India and is the capital of the India having a population of around 11 million. It is the sixth most populated cities in the world. It is a part of national capital region with many other big cities. The natural environment of the Delhi is not fit for living a healthy life. The air in Delhi is having very high content of particulate matter. In 2014, World Health Organisation announced it as the most polluted city in the world [2]. With the increasing concentrate jungles the city authorities in 2008 claimed that its green cover area raised form 26 square km to 300 square km.

Figure 1Map of Delhi

The level of economic and social development of the population is very high. Right now it is having population which comprises of people from every region of the nation. Most of them have come in search of jobs. Right it is having the total wealth of $450 billion and around 18 billionaires and 23,000 millionaires live in this city [3]. It stands second in terms of wealth capital of the city. As it is a union territory hence it is centrally governed state. There is a state government and right now ruled by Aam Aadmi party in the house of 70 electoral seats.

There are various kinds of environmental and population issues that are existing in the city. The major environmental issues that exist in Delhi are related to both air and water. The presence of very high amount of particulate matter in the air especially the presence of PM 10 and PM 2.5 makes it highly dangerous [4]. The major reason for the so much of pollution is that there are too many industries and vehicles running inside the city. Recent studies on environment pollution have depicted that the major reason for the pollution in Delhi is the amount of construction that is going on in city. Since India is a developing nation having Delhi and NCR regions developing at much faster rate hence there are huge amount of constructions that are going on. This pollution has raised many kinds of health related issues for the people. It is not only increasing the water and air pollution but it has also increased the noise pollution in the city.

Current environmental and population health issues

Figure 2: Average PM in air

The major environmental issue that is present in current Delhi is because of the overpopulation. It is putting heavy burden on the resources of the city like the water reservoirs. The city is suffering from the air pollution due to the road and construction dust as well as industries [5]. Increasing diesel powered engines contributes heavily to the pollution. It has increased the number of people who are suffering from lungs and other kinds of diseases. It is estimated that approx. 10000 people die every year in the Delhi because of the Air pollution in the city. With such a high population it the city, it has become difficult to avail the high quality resources. It can be seen in terms of the fact that river Yamuna’s water quality has degraded so much that if a person drinks it then it may cause serious damage to their internal organs. Even the resources that are present with the government are unable to fulfil the overextending demands of the city.

Table 1: Sources of Air pollution in Delhi

There are series of health challenges that are present in the Delhi city. All needs to be tackled in a very planned so that the issue does not get bigger. Some of the challenges are as follows:

• Lungs Disease: There are various kinds of lung’s disease that can be noticed in the people that are inhaling the air in the city. Due to this problem there are huge amount of lungs patients coming up every year. The problem has got such bigger that it is leading to loss of lives not even in hundreds rather in thousands [6].
• Skin and eye disease: The amount of pollution that is generated in Delhi is leading to skin irritation and over exposure to it is causing skin diseases. There are huge amount of patients that are coming to the hospitals having the complaints related to skin and eye irritation. Headache is most in common among the people.
• Smog clouds: This type of clouds which is mainly generated in the winter season is producing skin and eye irritations. Headaches are most common in these days. It is also leading to accidents which results in loss of lives [7].Epidemics: Due to the unclean environment there are many types of diseases that are generated every year. The disease like malaria and dengue are most common due to the unhealthy and polluted water bodies.

Figure 3: PM 10 Emission regions in Delhi

• Overcrowding: Due to the huge amount of population it is difficult to eliminate vehicles from the roads as well as reduce the industries or the amount of construction that are going on in the city.
• Lack of people participation: It is seen that there is a lack of people participation in making the environment clean. This can be seen by the fact that they are continuously using their private vehicles instead of public vehicles [8]. They are not taking care of the place where they are living.
• Huge amount of funding: Huge amounts of funds will be required for making the public transport more strong that will capable of handling the traffic load of the city [9]. The construction of metro has somehow limited its impact but for making changes there will be further more investments that will required.

Figure 4 PM 10 Content in the major cities of the world

There are many such policies, projects or plans that are being used within the city for reducing the amount of challenges and obstacles faced by the city. Some of these examples are:

• Odd even Formula: In order to reduce the traffic from the roads of Delhi, the state government has launched the plan of Odd Even. It was not very successful but was a good attempt to reduce the pollution [10].
• Remove diesel powered engine: The National Green Tribunal has banned all the cars or trucks that are powered by Diesel engines and are more than 10 years old [11]. This was an effective measure as it is seen that the vehicles that are too old produces huge amount of particulate matters which are highly harmful for the patients.
• Closing all the drains: The central government has ordered to close all the drains that were opening in the river Yamuna. This has helped them in limiting the amount of water pollution in the city [13]. It is also helping in protection against the spread of epidemics like dengue and malaria.
• Enhanced parking fees: For discouraging the excessive use of vehicles the MCD and DDA has enhanced the parking fees by four times [14].
• Ban on trucks: Unless there is some important commodity carried by the trucks all others are banned from entering into the city [15].
• Ban on civil construction: The authorities of Delhi have made the policy for not using the construction equipment that is running on diesel powered engines. The graded action plan has been prepared for it [16].
• More metro and public buses: The government has decided to increase the number of metros as well as public transport so as to reduce the load from the roads by making people to use public vehicles.
• Ban on industrial activities as well as waste burning: There is a ban on industrial activities that are polluting the environment as framed by NGT. There is also a ban on the burning of waste in open.

Conclusion

From the above based report it can be said that Delhi is one of the most polluted city in the world and has become so because of the various factors present in the environment. The overpopulation is one of the major factors in this regards. There are water, air and noise pollution that are causing many kinds of health related issues in the city and are causing death in huge numbers. There are any challenges and obstacles that are present in the city which is preventing the people from leading a healthy life. On the other hand both state and central government and authorities are making policies, plans and running projects for reducing the pollution.

References

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Major environmental health challenges and obstacles

[2]. Guttikunda SK, Gurjar BR. Role of meteorology in seasonality of air pollution in megacity Delhi, India. Environmental monitoring and assessment. 2012 May 1;184(5):3199-211.

[3]. Rizwan SA, Nongkynrih B, Gupta SK. Air pollution in Delhi: its magnitude and effects on health. Indian journal of community medicine: official publication of Indian Association of Preventive & Social Medicine. 2013 Jan;38(1):4.

[4]. Foster A, Kumar N. Health effects of air quality regulations in Delhi, India. Atmospheric Environment. 2011 Mar 1;45(9):1675-83.

[5]. Tiwari S, Bisht DS, Srivastava AK, Pipal AS, Taneja A, Srivastava MK, Attri SD. Variability in atmospheric particulates and meteorological effects on their mass concentrations over Delhi, India. Atmospheric research. 2014 Aug 1;145:45-56.

[6]. Apte JS, Kirchstetter TW, Reich AH, Deshpande SJ, Kaushik G, Chel A, Marshall JD, Nazaroff WW. Concentrations of fine, ultrafine, and black carbon particles in auto-rickshaws in New Delhi, India. Atmospheric Environment. 2011 Aug 1;45(26):4470-80.

[7]. Beig G, Chate DM, Ghude SD, Mahajan AS, Srinivas R, Ali K, Sahu SK, Parkhi N, Surendran D, Trimbake HR. Quantifying the effect of air quality control measures during the 2010 Commonwealth Games at Delhi, India. Atmospheric environment. 2013 Dec 1;80:455-63.

[8]. Kulshreshtha P, Khare M. Indoor exploratory analysis of gaseous pollutants and respirable particulate matter at residential homes of Delhi, India. Atmospheric Pollution Research. 2011 Jul 1;2(3):337-50.

[9]. Goyal P, Dhirendra M, Kumar A. Emissions of criteria pollutanats from vehicular traffic in Delhi, India. Journal of Environmental Research and Development. 2013 Apr 1;7(4A):1693.

[10]. Kaur S, Mehra P. Assessment of heavy metals in summer & winter seasons in River Yamuna segment flowing through Delhi, India. Journal of Environment and Ecology. 2012 Nov 12;3(1):149-65.

[11]. Gargava P, Chow JC, Watson JG, Lowenthal DH. Speciated PM 10 emission inventory for Delhi, India. Aerosol and Air Quality Research. 2014 Aug 1;14(5):1515-26.

[12]. Firdaus G, Ahmad A. Changing air quality in Delhi, India: determinants, trends, and policy implications. Regional Environmental Change. 2011 Dec 1;11(4):743-52.

[13]. Kumar P, Khare M, Harrison RM, Bloss WJ, Lewis A, Coe H, Morawska L. New directions: air pollution challenges for developing megacities like Delhi. Atmospheric Environment. 2015 Oct 23;122:657-61.

[14]. Jha, A. Delhi’s air pollution is causing a health crisis. So, what can be done?. The Guardian. [Internet]. 2015 Nov 3. [Cited on 29^th May 2018]. Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/nov/03/delhis-air-pollution-causing-health-crisis-so-what-can-be-done

[15]. Karelia, G. 7 Steps Taken By Authorities To Curb Rising Air Pollution Levels In Delhi. NDTV News. [Internet]. 2017 Nov 11. [Cited on 29^th May 2018]. Available from:  https://swachhindia.ndtv.com/7-steps-taken-by-authorities-to-curb-rising-air-pollution-levels-in-delhi-14332/

[16]. ET Online. NGT ban on diesel cars. The Economic Times. [Internet]. 2017, September, 14. [Cited on 29^th May 2018]. Available from:https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/auto/news/passenger-vehicle/cars/ngt-ban-on-diesel-cars-what-you-should-do-if-you-live-in-delhi-ncr/articleshow/60515631.cms