According to a current report by the World Health Organization (WHO), among the 20 most contaminated cities on the earth, 13 are in India, in which Delhi tops the list.
Every year air pollution in New Delhi causes smog during the winters
Here are some important issues and steps which are being taken to control the Pollution level in Delhi.
- The Supreme Court has banned the sale of firecrackers in Diwali, India's largest festival, to deal with the air pollution problem in Delhi, that causes smog during the winters.
- The Court has declared 24th October as a deadline for the government to regulate the use of petcoke fuel.
- Every day nearly eight residents are dying in India's capital due to air pollution.
- Despite the authorities in the capital setting rules to clear the air by cutting traffic, air pollution continues to be a severe threat to the lives of the residents of the capital.
- A new fuel, petroleum coke, which is the replacement of coal, has further enhanced the problem of the air pollution.
- Petroleum coke, also known as Petcoke is found in tar sands in the pits of Canada. These are some of the dirtiest crude oil sources. At US Gulf Coast, it is refined where petrol and diesel are removed. Petcoke is the left out substance that produces further harmful substances such as carbon, sulfur and heavy metal emission such as coal.
- It is exported to the countries like India and China where it is used as a fuel. Thus the developed counties manage to make money out of this harmful waste material due to lax environmental laws in China and India.
- China has reduced its dependence upon petcoke since 2014. Now India is the largest importer of petcoke.
- In February, Supreme Court has ordered the government to ban the use of petcoke or put a limit on the sulphur emission in the process.
- The regulations have limited the sulfur emissions to 4,000 ppm but the regional environmental agencies confirm the presence of 72,000 ppm of sulphur in the petcoke.