What exactly is causing the Capital’s air to be polluted at any given point of time will be the focus of a new real-time source apportionment study that the Delhi government is getting ready to commission.
The study is most likely to be conducted by the University of Washington and the proposal is being finalised, said sources from Environment and Forest Department.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had in February announced the government’s plan to conduct a “round-the-year” study of air pollution sources while addressing officials and public on the third anniversary of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government.
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Nearing finalisation
A senior official of the department said the proposal was nearing finalisation and would most likely be implemented in the upcoming financial year.
In addition, the official said that if successful, the same mechanism used to carry out the year-long study would be retained for future to maintain a real time system of source apportionment.
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So, the official said, the government would be able to tell the sources of air pollution at a particular point in time even after the year-long study wraps up.
The study would be a part of a larger push towards understanding and solving Delhi’s toxic air quality, said Mr. Kejriwal.
The study would be the first of its kind for Delhi. The latest study on Delhi’s air pollution sources was carried out by the Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur and had submitted to the government in January 2016.
The IIT-Kanpur team conducted sampling in winter 2013-2014 and summer 2014 and found that particulate pollution was the main problem for Delhi as levels of PM10 and PM2.5 were four to seven times over the national standards.
The study found that 38% and 20% of PM2.5 in the air was due to road dust and vehicles respectively.