Gimmicks don’t work

‘Smog Gun’ just another doomed attempt to deal with Delhi’s abysmal air quality

The rain a few weeks ago thanks to Cyclone Okchi had a dramatic impact on Delhi’s pathetic winter air, as the raindrops drenched the particulate matter and brought them to the ground. Delhi’s millions of trees whose leaves were covered in a thick layer of brown dust became green again. Yet, the northwesterly winds coated Delhi with another layer of brown dust,

apparently from Afghanistan. Unlike the farmers burning fields in Punjab which our politicians were either helpless to combat or wilfully negligent about, India can’t really do much about this dust. One can blame human actions for a lot of the dust problems; indeed, the merciless destruction of the Aravali hills by the stone-mining mafia has denuded them leaving Delhi vulnerable to the dust-laden wind.

But without a clear culprit what can the Government do to combat the dust problem? Well, it can start looking at holistic solutions and not ideas like the ‘Smog Gun’. The so called Smog Gun is an ideal solution at large construction or mining sites, indeed it was developed for that purpose. It is not, however, a solution to widespread particulate pollution in the city. Other gimmicks like helicopters spraying the city with mist might work in a small area but these take no account of the foggy and wet conditions that will be created. And can such a move really work in a city as large as Delhi? Another solution, tried in some Chinese cities, is to have large cleaning fans — think of them as gargantuan air purifiers installed at public spaces. This will not be a cheap solution, and will not address the whole city but work in areas of high public concentration. The winter season of 2017-18 has less than a month to go. Winds will carry away the dust in a few weeks and our politicians and bureaucrats having done nothing will heave a sigh of relief. We must not let them rest, because the same problem will occur in Winter 2018. And we must start planning for next year this year itself. Whether it is speeding up work on the Delhi Metro and peripheral bypasses and planning car-rationing better, or combating crop burning and the dust brought in by winds, solutions will have to be thought through. Some like the Smog Gun will be gimmicks, others may fail in the context of Delhi. But we need to start work now.