The Indian Environmental Service shut down a coal-fired power plant and
banned diesel generators in New Delhi as air quality plummeted in the world’s
most polluted capital at the start of the Diwali festival . This situation is
repeated every year when farmers in northern India burn the stubble left after
the harvest. The onset of winter exacerbates the problem as colder air traps
pollutants, a phenomenon known as inversion. This situation negatively affects
the well-being of the population, especially residents with respiratory
diseases such as bronchial asthma and chronic bronchitis.
The Environmental Protection Council has ruled that levels of PM2.5 pollutants
in the air have reached two hundred micrograms per cubic meter – eight times
the World Health Organization’s maximum limit of twenty-five. Every winter,
Delhi faces a truly difficult situation. when air pollution levels get out of
control, experts say. On this occasion, it was decided to close the Badarpur
power plant, which has a capacity of about seven hundred megawatts, until
March. In July next year, the plant will be closed, because. India is looking
to move away from highly polluting fossil fuels. In addition, a ban has been
imposed on the use of private diesel generators, which many wealthy households
use due to frequent power outages.
Last year, levels of PM2.5 – fine particles associated with higher rates of
chronic bronchitis, asthma, lung cancer and cardiovascular disease – rose to
778 in the days after Diwali , prompting the Supreme Court to issue an
emergency warning. in the field of public health. Levels between 301-500 are
classified as “dangerous”, while readings over five hundred fall
outside the official index.
The Delhi government closed schools for several days, banned all construction
work for five days to contain rising levels of dust in the air, and temporarily
shut down the Badarpur factory .
In a 2014 World Health Organization study of 1,600 cities, Delhi was the most
polluted. Poor air quality in India is reportedly responsible for more than a
million premature deaths each year, according to a joint report from two US
health research institutes earlier this year.