Mumbai is 4th most polluted city in world? Experts question WHO data

A day after the World Health Organisation (WHO) report ranked Mumbai as the fourth most polluted metropolitan city in the world, experts have expressed doubts over the alarming findings. The report took into account the particulate matter(PM) pollutants in the air and the rankings were based on PM 2.5 as well as PM 10 levels.

Dr Gufran Beig, Project Director of the System of Air Quality Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR), which generates Air Quality Index (AQI) profile for Delhi, Mumbai, Pune and Ahmedabad expressed that he had his reservations in accepting the conclusions of the WHO report, particularly about Indian cities and the authenticity of their data base. He added that WHO must consult Indian stakeholders before conclusions.

Further, he stated that this ranking was biased towards the specific single station data. These stations are located in the traffic junction in most cities. Experts have raised the issue that the AQI of a city is a combination of different micro-environments. Additionally, the Indian threshold limit for PM 2.5 is 40 microgram per cubic metre while the WHO’s standard was 10 microgram per cubic metre.

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“Most doubtful is the result on Mumbai which SAFAR is mapping and forecasting for past 3 years. It is not as polluted as concluded by the WHO report and the reason is simple and scientific. Pollution in Mumbai cannot build up significantly due to coastal environment and often gets swept away due to cleaner oceanic winds. Most of the time, pollution levels are ‘moderate’ to ‘poor’ and during the winter, a few days record ‘very poor’,” informed Dr Beig.

Meanwhile, experts have also claimed that rather than just ignoring this report, it needed to be treated it as a warning bell for Mumbai, adding that an independent expert committee needs to be appointed to not only study the present situation of air quality but also estimate the future situation. “In the next five years the construction is only going to increase with several key infrastructure projects in pipeline. A proper action plan has to be prepared for Mumbai when it comes to tackling air pollution,” said an air quality expert in the Central Government.

By Virat A Singh, DNA India