‘Everyone agrees pollution needs to be tackled’

Since 1989, authorities in Mexico City have regulated the number of cars on its streets in various innovative ways, as part of their efforts to control pollution in winter. These initiatives have succeeded in lowering the level of smog and continue to be practised till date, said a representative from the embassy of Mexico. Jorge N Meade Cervera, from the Mexican Embassy, made the comments at a discussion on air quality at the US Embassy Wednesday.

“I think political will is extremely important to drive change in air quality. We started with a smog alert system in winters with car number plates.. so if your number plate had 1 or 2 in it, you could not drive on particular days. Then we moved to how old the vehicles were… If your vehicle was older than nine years, you could not use it on certain days of the week or weekends…,” he said, adding that these measures had brought down air pollution levels from very poor to average levels.

[related-post]

Dr Lesley Jayne Onyon, from WHO SEARO (World Health Organisation, South-East Asia Regional Office) said it was encouraging to see policy makers in India acknowledge air pollution as a problem.

“When we said Delhi was the most polluted city in the world, the discussion in media and other circles was not very healthy. It was about whether the WHO was correct or the Indian government was, instead of what we could do about it. It is encouraging to see that people are beginning to appreciate the data. Though we may disagree about the average figures, everyone agrees that something needs to be done,” said Onyon.