Air pollution cost India $55bn in 2013

1,000 people died when Delhi turned gas chamber between 2013 and 2017

Between 2013 and 2017, including the period when Delhi turned into a “gas chamber”, nearly 1,000 people died due to air pollution. The national Capital also saw 10 per cent of its population suffer from acute respiratory infection (ARI) during the same period. With a population of 1.69 crore, Delhi had over 17 lakh ARI cases.

Overall, the country’s labour losses due to air pollution in 2013 stood at 55.39 billion dollars or about 0.84 per cent of its gross domestic products (GDP).

The pollution-related banning of construction activities resulted in loss of livelihood to thousands of the poor and the needy, especially labourers.

A Parliamentary Standing Committee on Earth Science, Environment and Forest headed by Congress MP Anand Sharma has cited a World Bank Report on air pollution in Delhi, saying worldwide India reported the highest loss in labour output in 2013 due to air pollution. The loss was pegged at $55.39 billion (2011 PPP-adjusted), or 0.84 per cent of its GDP. China followed close behind with $44.56 billion, or 0.28 per cent of its GDP, lost due to forgone labour output.

“Adding welfare costs and costs of lost labour due to air pollution puts India’s GDP loss at more than 8.5 per cent in 2013. India’s GDP growth at constant prices was less than 7 per cent in 2013-14. So air pollution alone might be offsetting the Indian economy’s growth efforts,” it said. The report was tabled in Parliament on Tuesday.

The report said contribution of vehicles to ambient PM2.5 concentration during winter and summer are 25 per cent and 9 per cent respectively in the national Capital. The major source contribution during winters is from secondary particles (30 per cent), bio-mass burning (26 per cent) and vehicles (25 per cent). In summers, the major sources are soil and road dust (28 per cent), coal and fly ash (26 per cent), secondary particles (15 per cent), bio-mass burning (12 per cent) and vehicles (9 per cent).

The committee expressed concern that deteriorating air pollution has been responsible for the emergence of the national Capital as one of the most polluted cities in the world. It said even the World Health Organisation put Delhi amongst 20 most polluted cities in the world in terms of PM2.5 levels in the year 2016.

“Pollution prevention is a major global concern because of its harmful effects on people’s health and the overall environment. Air Pollution has assumed gigantic proportions in our country and Delhi, the capital of India, is not lagging behind. Growing urbanisation, rapid industrialisation and increasing population during the last few years have also adversely impacted the air pollution scenario of Delhi and NCR. In view of the foregoing concern, the Committee recommends that the Ministry, on its part, must prepare both short and long-term plans, put forth futuristic projections and ensure that all the measures planned are holistically implemented in coordination with the concerned State Governments,” the report said.

It further stated that there are many scientific organisations of Government of India such as CSIR-Indian Institute of Petroleum, Dehradun; Indian Institute of Remote Sensing; Dehradun; Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune; CSIR-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, Nagpur which can help in contributing towards finding solutions to many aspects associated with the air pollution problem of Delhi.

The Committee also notes that hazardous air quality in Delhi and NCR after Diwali last year and at some other times too, made headlines globally. Such reports have an adverse impact on the plan of international tourists to visit India, particularly Delhi.

The Committee in its report stated that instead of banning construction activities, which deprive the poor of their daily earnings, efforts should be made for the stringent enforcement of the construction guidelines and international best practices. “It was also observed that noxious vapours from paints, thinners, oils, cleaners etc are environmentally hazardous chemicals which are widely used at the construction sites and have been contributing to raise the levels of air pollution in the region,” it said.

According to report, the epidemiological study on Effect of Air Pollution on Human Health (Adults) in Delhi (2008) conducted by CPCB with Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute, Kolkata has showed that people of Delhi had 1.7 times more prevalence of respiratory symptoms compared with rural controls, and the difference between these two groups with respect to respiratory symptom was highly significant. “The prevalence of current asthma and physician-diagnosed asthma among the participants of Delhi were 7.6% and 3.6% respectively which were significantly higher than the corresponding prevalences in control group which were 3.9% and 2.1% respectively,” it said.