Air pollution levels lower than Indian norms causing deaths: Study

Air pollution levels much lower than Indian approved standards can cause deaths, according a new study published in Lancet Planetary Health, reported HT. 

The newspaper added that Lancet found that across 10 major cities in India — Delhi, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune, Shimla, and Varanasi – around 33,000 deaths every year are attributable to PM 2.5 pollution levels that breach the WHO guideline of only 15 micrograms per cubic metres. The national standard for fine, particulate matter or PM 2.5 (24 hours) is 60 micrograms per cubic metres.

The report pointed out that Delhi recorded the highest deaths attributable to air pollution across all cities studied – 11.5% of all deaths – amounting to 12,000 each year. Varanasi is estimated to have recorded 10.2% of all deaths (830 each year) during the study period, which were attributable to short-term PM2.5 exposure higher than the WHO guideline value of 15 micrograms per cubic metres.

Sewage: Yamuna becomes 42 times more polluted when it crosses Delhi

Delhi is making the Yamuna 42 times more polluted between the time it enters and exits the city, according to a new study. The biological oxygen demand (BOD) levels in the Yamuna in June were 2mg/litre at Palla, where the river enters Delhi, but rose to 85mg/l at Asgarpur, where it exits Delhi, according to the latest water quality report uploaded by the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC), the HT reported. 

The permissible BOD level in the river is 3mg/l. The difference in BOD levels at the two sites — Asgarpur recorded nearly 28 times more than Palla — is indicative of the decaying water quality in the river. Water samples are collected manually from the Yamuna from eight locations by DPCC every month. The collection begins at Palla, where the river enters Delhi, followed by Wazirabad, ISBT Kashmere Gate, ITO bridge, Nizamuddin bridge, Okhla barrage, Agra Canal and Asgarpur.The monthly reports also measure faecal coliform — bacteria living in the intestines of warm-blooded mammals, including humans, thus indicating the presence of sewage and human waste in the river. This ranged from 1,600 parts per million (PPN) at Palla to 24,00,000 PPM at Asgarpur, according to the June report. The permissible limit is only 2,500 PPN.

The data for drains points out if sewage is flowing through the drains or reaching sewage treatment plants (STPs) instead. Of the 27 major drains assessed in June, 11 had “no flow” — no sewage or stormwater flowing through them, at the time of testing. The remaining 18 had a BOD value over the permissible standard of 30mg/l for drains. The highest value of 120mg/l was recorded at the Shahdara drain.

Delhi plans to set up vertical forests, solar-powered EV charging infra to fight air pollution

To control air pollution, the Delhi government is planning a rapid rollout of solar-powered EV charging infrastructure and vertical forests. The plan involves repurposing petrol stations, parking lots and lamp posts to create charging sites and battery swapping stations, ET reported. The news outlet quoted a government official who said “smart poles” combining fast-charging functions, public Wi-Fi, and the internet of things could soon become a reality in Delhi.

Air pollution is shortening the lives of Delhi residents by 11.9 years, the report said. The Delhi government plans to set up vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology that allows energy to be pushed back to the power grid from an electric vehicle’s battery, balancing variations in energy production and consumption. The city government is contemplating a complete transition to a zero-emission bus fleet by 2035-2040.

Currently, Delhi has 1,650 electric buses in operation, the highest among all Indian cities. The government aims to have more than 8,000 e-buses operational in Delhi by the end of 2025.

The final draft is ready and awaiting approval from the city government’s environment minister before being sent to the Union environment ministry. The work on a new plan began in 2021, with the first draft completed in 2022. It took around two years to finalise the consultations and fine-tune the plan.

Massive fish kill in Periyar river attributed to industrial pollution

The severe fish mortality event in May in Kerala’s Periyar river was caused by the opening of the gates at the Pathalam regulator-bridge upstream, leading to the release of polluted water, according to the Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies (KUFOS) and the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) study. 

The severity escalated to catastrophic levels due to increased pollution from industrial sources. “Alarming concentrations of heavy metals and toxic chemicals were detected in the water, sediment, and fish,” the report claimed. It emphasised how this disaster underscored the urgent need for stringent controls on effluent treatment and discharge, enhanced monitoring of polluting industries, and real-time surveillance of surface and bottom water as well as sediment both upstream and downstream of the Pathalam regulator.

The discharged water contained “harmful substances and reduced oxygen levels, resulting in a significant number of fish dying downstream”. The report found that water upstream of the regulator had stagnated, accumulating organic matter like household waste, public drain runoff, decaying plant and animal matter and anthropogenic effluents from markets, hotels and other sources. This led to the production of harmful gases like hydrogen sulphide, methane, ammonia, and more.

US: Marathon Oil agrees to record penalty for oil and gas pollution

Big Oil company Marathon Oil will pay a record $64.5m penalty and invest around  $177m in “pollution-cutting measures”, to pay up for violations of the Clean Air Act, the Washington Post reported. The newspaper added that the fine is the largest ever for Clean Air Act violations at stationary sources, which include oil refineries, power plants and factories, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA and justice department had alleged that Marathon had violated Clean Air Act requirements at nearly 90 facilities, resulting in “thousands of tonnes of illegal pollution”, according to the newspaper report. It added that Marathon is required to take steps to reduce more than 2.25 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions over the next five years – roughly equivalent to the emissions avoided by taking 487,000 cars off the road for a year, the EPA said in a news release. The settlement will also prevent nearly 110,000 tonnes of volatile organic compound emissions, according to the agency.

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