Delhi’s air crisis: A failure of will

The air quality in Delhi is again on the brink — Wednesday’s was the worst air the city breathed in nearly 100 days though the situation improved yesterday. Despite this being an annual spectre that arrives with ample forewarning, the governments — in Delhi, its surrounding states, and at the Centre — appear wholly unprepared to act, until it becomes a full-blown crisis.

Policymakers have repeatedly revealed their inability to understand the science that should form the basis of their decisions. Take, for instance, the attempts to understand real-time source apportionment of Delhi’s pollutants. In January 2019, the Delhi government tasked the University of Washington to find the real-time source of air pollution. Eighteen months later, the government abandoned the project. In November 2021, it roped in IIT-Kanpur. However, unhappy with the institute’s “data generation”, the government terminated the deal two years later and claimed that accurate forecasting was untenable! Last heard, the Delhi Pollution Control Committee was looking for another institute to do the work. The mess points to the real malaise in the system: putting the cart before the horse. The government makes policy decisions (also influenced by political contingencies) without building a sound scientific foundation. Adhocism, driven more by reaction than reason, tends to shape policies.

Delhi’s crisis demands both immediate and long-term strategies. First, the immediate strategy. Delhi’s geography places it at a disadvantage — its location in the Indo-Gangetic Plain with the Himalayas to its north and northwest makes it a natural basin for pollutants, especially from the farm fires in Haryana and Punjab. But this does not excuse inaction: Year after year, the two neighbouring states’ governments blame economic hardships faced by farmers to avoid putting out farm fires. The reality is alternatives exist to stubble burning but are not enforced. Allowing the fires to rage, knowing the catastrophic effects on air quality, is abdication of the State’s responsibility to citizens. In the medium- to long- term, the government needs to shift its focus to controllable sources of pollution — vehicular emissions, the pervasive burning of garbage, and unregulated construction. These are well within the Delhi government’s remit. However, efforts to address them are inconsistent, and measures are typically rolled out after the problem has escalated.

This is a profound public health crisis where the lives of over 20 million people are at stake. The State has the resources to mitigate the crisis but seems short on the will to implement the solutions. Delhi is choking because the administration is slipping.

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