Is Delhi ready for drastic measures against pollution?
If you’re a citizen of the capital, then particularly in the last few months, you’ve felt the choke and wheeze of the air in the city.
Whether it’s just to step out for a walk, go out for some fresh air, or even to open the windows, Delhiites have had a hazardous winter in terms of air quality and pollution.
The Delhi government’s once-successful odd-even scheme proved futile in the face of the US Embassy finding that air quality index (AQI) stands at 999.
The standard chart to record AQI finishes at the "hazardous" level of 500. But the air cleared, vog masks covered fewer faces, the Supreme Court banned firecrackers (you’ll still see them sporadically if a festival or wedding is around the corner) and soon, the issue of air pollution disappeared from the collective consciousness of the news cycle, the government and the people.
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| Four out of five Delhiites said they would be willing to take action to advance solutions to the problems faced. |
Fortunately, a poll commissioned by the Help Delhi Breathe coalition, conducted in October-November 2016 by the Human Development Institute, won’t let us forget this problem easily.
The survey, which was conducted through in-person interviews with 500 residents of Delhi, following quotas for age, gender and education - that are representative of the Delhi population - will soon be out for the public to gauge. A staggering 88 per cent of the capital’s citizens described the air quality as “dirty” and, unsurprisingly, zero per cent described it as “very clean”.
The good news is that a few of the results suggest that the capital is not as laidback in addressing the issue of air quality as the authorities. Nine out of 10 residents are concerned about the air quality in the city and while the causes, to their minds, vary, data suggests they are ready to accept drastic measures in order to control the PM levels.
Four out of five Delhiites said they would be willing to take action to advance solutions to the problems faced.
69 per cent were even agreeable to a complete ban on diesel, since 88 per cent identify vehicular emissions as a leading cause of air pollution. While the findings suggest the capital’s inhabitants are ready to radically react to the notorious “most polluted city in the world” tag that has come to suffocate the city, this data will help keep the issue alive. And hopefully, thereby, the rest of us Dilliwalas too.
The poll is available on www.helpdelhibreathe.in.