Poor air quality in Mumbai: SHRC intervention sought to improve AQI

Till Wednesday afternoon Mumbai was in second position on the list of most polluted cities. File pic/Shadab Khan

Alarmed by the worsening air quality with increased dust and carbon monoxide in Mumbai and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), a Navi Mumbai-based environmentalist has moved the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) seeking intervention. Quoting Sunday mid-day's (October 22) report on air pollution, B N Kumar, founder and director of NGO NatConnect Foundation, wrote to SHRC stating that the poor air quality in both Mumbai and MMR is significantly impacting human health.

"The worsening air quality index (AQI), coupled with industrial and automobile pollution (CO) is a matter of great concern as it has been badly impacting our health, but the authorities concerned sadly remain unconcerned," Kumar stated.

In his complaint letter to SHRC dated October 24, Kumar wrote: "The situation is very, very alarming as the people are forced to inhale tonnes of dust and carbon monoxide. The data floated by websites such as ‘aqi.in' suggests that the index has been way above the WHO limit of 50 and it has gone to even 400 in
some places."

Meanwhile, as part of their mitigation plans, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Wednesday issued detailed guidelines on air pollution and dust control. Also, on Monday, the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) started issuing notices to errant builders for violation of dust mitigation compliances, like regular fogging at construction sites. NMMC's Additional City Engineer Shirish Aradwad said a penalty of R10 per square metre will be levied on errant builders.

According to Kumar, the NMMC notices to builders and developers pointed out that the builders defaulted on five counts and high dust levels were noticed at the site. "The builders also failed in misting sufficient water sprays and the construction material was not covered with tarpaulin. People in Sector 9 in particular have been complaining about dust and noise pollution, and illegal blasting at some redevelopment sites," he said.

Kumar claimed to have alerted the Navi-Mumbai municipal commissioner through his NGO Natconnect in May about mounds of dug-up material at some sites which could clog the city's stormwater drains in case it rained. Subsequently, the commissioner ordered his teams to act and ensure that the debris was cleared quickly ahead of
the monsoon.

In his complaint to the SHRC, Kumar said urgent attention is required in Uran, which topped the rogue AQI charts, thanks to the rampant construction with no dust mitigation checks, quarrying and blasting.

Mumbai, till Wednesday afternoon, continued to retain second position in the list of most polluted cities, as per the live city AQI ranking by IQAir, a Swiss firm. It was, however, replaced by Delhi in the evening, as Mumbai's air quality improved slightly and it slipped to the ninth spot. In the evening Mumbai's AQI value was 154, whereas Delhi's was 166, the IQAir dashboard revealed.

154
Mumbai's AQI value on Wednesday evening