This winter, Mumbai records maximum ‘poor’ and ‘very poor’ AQI days in last four years

According to the data, between November 2021 and January 2022, Mumbai recorded ‘poor’ and ‘very poor’ AQI on 30 days, while between November 2020 and January 2021, the city saw 39 days of ‘poor’ and ‘very poor’ AQI, while between November 2019 and January 2020, Mumbai experienced ‘poor’ and ‘very poor’ AQI on only 17 days.

The data also shows that the number of days Mumbai experienced AQI in ‘good’ and ‘satisfactory’ categories over the past four years has fallen drastically.

“Mumbai’s AQI has drastically deteriorated in the past four years. Between 2019 and 2022, the average number of days when Mumbai experienced ‘poor’ and ‘very poor’ AQI was only 28, while in the past three months, the city has experienced ‘poor’ and ‘very poor’ AQI for 66 days, which is more than double,” Gufran Beig, project director and senior scientist from SAFAR, told The Indian Express on Monday.

He said the primary reason behind worsening of the AQI is weather condition, coupled with external factors like pollution and construction. “Throughout last winter season, Mumbai experienced slow to very slow wind-speed on most days, due to which the suspended particulate matters remained suspended in air for longer duration, thus affecting the AQI. Along with this, construction works, open garbage burning and factors like vehicular emission are also playing a role in worsening the AQI,” said Beig.

SAFAR has nine air quality monitoring stations in the city at Colaba, Mazagaon, Worli, BKC, Chembur, Andheri, Malad, Borivli and Bhandup. Besides these, they have one more monitoring station at Navi Mumbai.

Municipal Commissioner Iqbal Chahal, during his recent budget speech, had acknowledged that construction work is resulting in dust pollution. The BMC has also proposed to set up air-purifier towers, along the lines of smog towers of Delhi, Lucknow and Chandigarh, for mitigating the issue. However, city-based activists have criticised this decision, stating that it will not lead to any long-term results.

“The BMC administrator, as directed by the CM and DCM, has announced that the BMC will set up smog towers even though they have not shown any fruitful results anywhere. This is a complete waste of money that could have been better utilised for setting up a real time air monitoring network with real time alerts.” said Debi Goenka, executive trustee from Conservation Action Trust.

“Smog towers or air purification units have significant limitations, the primary one being that they are expensive and fail to have any real impact on citizens’ exposure to air pollution. I don’t think smog towers will be useful in addressing the air pollution problem at its core. What we really need to address is the source of emission rather than trying to capture emissions in the air,” said Dr Harshal Salve, additional professor, All India Institute of Medical Sciences.