ANN/THE STRAITS TIMES – News about India’s annual winter pollution crisis is mostly dominated by Delhi’s infamous bouts of smog. But, last week, Mumbai, India’s financial nerve centre, which lies on the coast of the Arabian Sea, hit the headlines for its deteriorating air quality, accentuating the country’s widespread pollution problem.
The city saw its overall air quality index (AQI) surpass 300 – a threshold that qualifies the air as “very poor” according to India’s measuring standards – on four consecutive days from December 5 to 8.
On certain days, Mumbai’s pollution levels were worse than Delhi’s air quality. The AQI in Mumbai on Friday at 8.30am was 309, compared with Delhi’s 249.
This year’s winter in Mumbai has been the most polluted in the past four years and the city had no “good” or “satisfactory” air quality days in the last 30 days, according to data from India’s System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (Safar).
While conditions cleared up on Saturday, last week saw hospitals in Mumbai report an increase in patients coming in with respiratory problems.
The poor air quality has been attributed to a lack of incoming sea breeze and unusually low wind speeds that have failed to disperse pollutants from key sources such as vehicles and industries, besides ongoing infrastructure projects and road dust suspension.
The city, with an estimated population of more than 18 million people, is witnessing several large infrastructure projects, including the expansion of its mass rapid transit system and a coastal road.
Data from Respirer Living Sciences (RLS), a private organisation which monitors air quality at around 15 locations in the city, indicates that particulate matter with a diameter of 10 microns or less (PM10) is substantially higher in the pollution mix compared with PM2.5 particles released mostly from combustion of petroleum products or wood.
Founder of RLS Ronak Sutaria said ongoing infrastructure development work is a “likely candidate” for PM10 pollution, along with road dust and other sources.
The city’s share of vehicular pollution has been rising too. A year-long Safar study, conducted between 2019 and 2020, showed vehicular emissions contributed 30.5 per cent of Mumbai’s PM2.5 particles, up from 16 per cent in 2016-17.
Founder Bhagwan Kesbhat of Waatavaran, an environmental organisation that runs a clean air campaign for Mumbai, said the authorities failed to put in place a growth model that disincentivises private vehicle ownership by scaling up the public transport system and enhancing walking and cycling options.
