Mumbai: A majority of the city’s air quality monitoring stations continued to record ‘moderate’ air pollution levels on Sunday, with seven of 23 locations experiencing ‘poor’ air. An AQI level between 101 and 200 falls under the ‘moderate’ category, and from 201-300 is categorised as ‘poor’.
Environmentalists and meteorologists have attributed the drop in air quality levels to natural factors such as early monsoon withdrawal this year and low wind speed that is essential to the dispersal of pollutants, as well as anthropogenic activities in the form of large-scale construction across the city, vehicular exhaust emissions and resuspension of road dust.
The daily 4pm bulletin by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) recorded a ‘moderate’ Air Quality Index (AQI) level of 175 based on 23 of the 25 locations for which readings were available. The city’s pollutants comprise of particulate matter (PM) of both sizes 2.5 and 10 micrograms per cubic metre (ug/m3). Even the System of Air Quality Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) recorded an overall AQI of Mumbai at 175, with PM10 as the primary pollutant, on Sunday evening.
The discrepancy is caused as the SAFAR has monitoring stations at nine locations in the city while CPCB calculates the overall AQI based on 18 monitoring including those in the same locations as SAFAR.
Since the withdrawal of monsoon on October 6, the city’s overall AQI levels have not touched poor levels, except for some locations.
AQI levels recorded by the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) showed ‘poor’ AQI levels with PM2.5 as the primary pollutant at seven locations with the highest in Colaba at 238. The others include Deonar and Sion at 219, Kherwadi-Bandra East at 216, Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) at 215, Mulund West at 209 and Worli at 202. Out of the nine locations on SAFAR, only Chembur (TISS)’s AQI was shy of being ‘poor’ and was at 200 at moderate.
Meanwhile, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) recorded a maximum temperature of 36.3 degrees Celsius at Santacruz and 35.5 degrees Celsius at Colaba.
BMC takes measures
Against the backdrop of the new guidelines issued by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Friday for builders on air pollution, the BMC has started micro-water spraying in various parts of Mumbai on Sunday using mist machines to control dust in the air.
With the change in climate adversely affecting the air quality and an increase in air pollution in the Mumbai metropolitan area, including the Mumbai region, a joint meeting was held by Iqbal Chahal, BMC commissioner with all institutions and organizations related to construction and pollution. Chahal gave strict instructions to implement dust and pollution control measures at all the ongoing construction sites in the city.
Accordingly, various measures have been initiated by the BMC to control dust and pollution in Mumbai. For this, spraying was done to control the number of dust particles in the air in Worli Sea Face, Haji Ali, Peddar Road, Swarajya Bhoomi (Girgaon Chowpatty), Nariman Point, Fashion Street, Badhwar Park, World Trade Center, etc., using vehicle mounted mist machines. Along with frost spraying, other measures are also being taken by the administration in Mumbai city and suburbs.
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