As per the recent report rolled out by IQAir AirVisual, 14 of the world’s 20 most polluted cities are in India. With an average PM 2.5 at 98.6, Delhi topped the list of most polluted capital cities in the world. Dhaka in Bangladesh stood second just after Delhi.
As per the 2019 World Air Quality Report, many Chinese cities including the capital Beijing have shown improvement and have dramatically improved their air quality in recent years.
In fact, Ghaziabad has topped the list of most polluted regional cities with PM 2.5 at 110.
The sources behind this pollution vary but the common contributors include emissions from transportation, biomass burning from household cooking, agricultural burning, and coal combustion.
The report also made a note of the Indian government’s actions in curbing air pollution with the launch of the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) to reduce PM2.5 and PM10 in 102 cities by 20-30 per cent by 2024 compared to 2017 levels.
However, according to the report, these measures didn’t have any serious impact and more needs to be done. According to the World Health Organization, air pollution causes an estimated 7 million premature deaths a year globally. At this rate, the doom seems nearer than ever before.
Image Credits – The Hindu
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