To-do list of Guwahati residents for clean air

Guwahati has hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons. It was ranked as the world’s second-most polluted city last year by IQ Air, a Swiss Air Technology Company. The Air Quality Index bulletin issued by the Central Pollution Control Board also shows that Guwahati’s air quality was the second most polluted among 243 cities and towns in India on Tuesday. The air quality of Byrnihat in Meghalaya was found to be the worst during the day, with an index level in the “very poor” category. The problem of rising levels of pollutants in Guwahati’s air getting worse is known to all stakeholders, including its residents. The pertinent question is: what measures have been taken by the city authorities and residents to improve the air quality? Ironically, the AQI data keeps pressing the alarm bells, but it continues to fall on deaf ears. The solutions to the problem have remained elusive due to a lack of collective efforts by the authorities and city residents. The AQI bulletin shows that while air quality in both Guwahati and Delhi was found to be “poor,” which causes breathing difficulty for most people on prolonged exposure, the index level of the state capital was higher at 297 as compared to 221 in the national capital. The bulletin also shows that the AQI of Nalbari town was worse than that of Delhi, with an index level of 247. Wednesday’s rain is expected to bring down the pollution levels in Guwahati, but the challenge is to keep them at a “good” (index level in the range 0–50) level even on non-rainy days. The CPCB bulletin states that in the case of a city with multiple monitoring locations, an average value is used to indicate air quality, but cautions that air quality may show variations across locations and that averaging is not a scientifically sound approach. Therefore, increasing monitoring stations is critical to generating robust data to prepare area-specific strategies and action plans when a city expands horizontally. The “Action Plan for Control of Air Pollution in Non-Attainment Cities of Assam” identified “vast sandy banks of the River Brahmaputra, hill cutting, wind-blown dust, increased infrastructural development and construction activities, along with traffic activities,” among other factors contributing to the rising pollution level in the city. Resuspension of road dust and vehicular emissions on crowded city roads and bylanes are also main contributors to air pollution, it adds. The introduction of 200 electric buses in the city is a laudable initiative towards decarbonising public transport. The state government has set the target of making Guwahati the first city to be completely dependent on an environment-friendly public transportation system by 2025. This can be possible only when the existing fleet of city buses running on diesel is replaced with electric buses or buses running on green fuels. Compared to a rapidly rising city’s resident population and floating population, the strength of city buses is inadequate. An increased fleet of city buses can reduce the number of personal mobility solutions for cars and two-wheelers, but this is not possible without increasing the effective carriageway of the roads. City residents extending cooperation to the authorities to expand the roads and by-lanes is essential to reducing traffic congestion and bringing down emission levels. Guwahati has about 1,200 school buses, and replacing these with electric or green fuel buses needs to be planned at the earliest, but the urgency must be felt equally by parents and school authorities to play their part in expediting such plans. The installation of an adequate number of charging stations and an adequate number of refuelling stations for compressed natural gas in the city is the first step to end the anxieties of vehicle owners and motivate them to adopt electric vehicles or CNG vehicles. Building construction and infrastructural development have increased in the city, which has led to an increase in the generation of construction and demolition waste. At the same time, it has also led to the to the cutting of large trees in different localities, which has not been compensated by the planting of trees. Trees play the most important role in reducing air pollution by absorbing carbon dioxide at the photosynthesis level and releasing oxygen. This basic scientific knowledge is imparted at the school level but is never kept in mind when trees are felled to create space for construction work, including residential buildings. In cases of public construction, the responsibility to plant trees lies with the city authorities, but in cases of residential construction, the responsibility lies with the owners. The city residents volunteering to plant trees on their campuses is crucial to reflecting their awareness level on the air quality index and how concerned they are about deteriorating air quality. Avoiding the use of personal vehicles that run on fossil fuels, whenever possible, can make a significant contribution. It is high time the city residents joined hands with the authorities to improve air quality before it is too late.