New Delhi: How long will the Modi government live in denial about the issue of air pollution, the opposition Congress asked on Sunday, January 18, amid reports of rising air quality index (AQI) not just in Delhi but across other Indian cities too.In a social media post, senior Congress leader and Member of Parliament Jairam Ramesh quoted a recent report by the World Bank which says that the Indo-Gangetic Plains and Himalayan foothills now witness one million premature deaths annually due to air pollution while also suffering economic losses to the tune of 10% of the regional GDP every year. Meanwhile, air quality remained hazardous in the national capital on Monday. The city recorded an AQI of 410 at 4 PM, and there were also reports of dense fogs in several parts of Delhi. The strictest emergency measures under the Graded Response Action Plan have already been in place since Saturday.High premature deaths, economic lossesAir pollution in the Indo-Gangetic plains and Himalayan foothills is now causing major losses in health and productivity and remains one of the region’s most severe development challenges, according to a report titled ‘A Breath of Change: Solutions for Cleaner Air in the Indo-Gangetic Plains and Himalayan Foothills’ by the World Bank released on December 15. The report said that air pollution in the region – which comprises parts of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Pakistan – comes from five main sources. These include households burning solid fuels for cooking and heating, industries burning fossil fuels and biomass inefficiently and without appropriate filter technology, motorists using inefficient internal combustion vehicles, farmers burning crop residues and inefficiently managing fertilisers and manure, and households and firms burning waste. As a result, one billion people in the region breathe unhealthy air, and around one million die prematurely every year. Economic losses are estimated at close to 10% of regional GDP annually, the report said:“The impacts are severe: cardiovascular and respiratory diseases have become leading causes of illness and death, average life expectancy in the [region] is shortened by more than three years, and around one million people die prematurely each year from exposure to polluted air. The associated economic damage is estimated at about 10% of regional GDP annually, driven by lost labor productivity, higher healthcare costs, and reduced human capital.”But the costs of implementing clean air measures are “far lower than the costs of continued pollution”, the report said.It underscored that solutions are available to tackle the issue, and charts out a roadmap on how to get there. Solutions it recommends include electric cooking; electrification and modernisation of industrial boilers, furnaces and kilns; non-motorised and electric transport systems; improved crop residue and livestock waste management; and improved waste segregation, recycling and disposal.The report grouped clean-air solutions into three mutually reinforcing ‘core areas’. These include actions to reduce emissions at their source in cooking, industry, transport, agriculture and waste management. Another is to implement measures that strengthen health and education systems, so that children and vulnerable communities are safeguarded during the transition to clean air. The third is to provide strong institutional backing through “regulatory frameworks, market-based instruments, and regional coordination that sustain multi-sector and multi-jurisdictional progress over time”.“This report shows that solutions are within reach and offers a practical roadmap for policy and decision makers to implement coordinated, feasible, and evidence-based solutions at scale. There are strong financial and economic rationales for South Asian enterprises, households, and farmers to adopt cleaner technologies and practices, and for governments to support them,” said Martin Heger, Senior Environmental Economist at the World Bank, in a statement. Heger is one of the editors of the report.The report was funded by the World Bank’s Resilient Asia Program, the UK’s Foreign Commonwealth Development Office, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and the Korean Green Growth Trust Fund.‘Government living in denial’Calling the report timely, “comprehensive, evidence-based, and unambiguous”, senior Congress leader and member of parliament Jairam Ramesh asked how long the Modi government was going to live in denial about the issue of air pollution.Among the recommendations that the report makes are ensuring the enforcement of coal power plant emission norms and accelerated retirement of the oldest units; shifting away from city-centric plans to legally empowered airshed-based governance that cuts across states; and the expansion and electrification of public transport and tightening of vehicle emission and fuel standards, Ramesh said.He added that the Congress had been repeatedly suggesting several actions including a review of the Air Pollution (Control and Prevention) Act of 1981 and the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), 2009, with focus on PM 2.5; expanding the National Clean Air Programme both in terms of financial outlays and geographic coverage with measurement of PM 2.5 levels as the yardstick for performance; and “a tougher and uncompromising enforcement of air pollution norms and standards without any relaxations or dilutions”.“How long will the Modi Govt live in denial,” Ramesh asked in his social media post.Delhi air still hazardousMeanwhile, the national capital continues to languish in dense fogs and hazardous air. As per the daily AQI bulletin published by the Central Pollution Control Board, Delhi’s AQI, at 410, continued to be in the ‘severe’ category on January 19. The prominent pollutant was fine particulate matter (or PM2.5, which are small, inhalable particles less than 2.5 microns in diameter). Data from 39 of the 40 monitoring stations across the city are used to calculate the AQI.News reports also mentioned a dense fog over several parts of the city in the morning.The city’s AQI shifted from ‘very poor’ to ‘severe’ on the evening of January 17. The AQI hit 400 at 4 PM and rose to 428 by 8 PM. Following this, the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) called for an urgent meeting and its sub-committee on the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) decided to implement Stage IV with immediate effect. The GRAP is a phased emergency response mechanism that is implemented based on AQI levels. An AQI level in the ‘severe’ category – between the levels 401-500 – attract the strictest GRAP enforcement, Stage IV, along with all other restrictions that are already in place under the first three existing stages. Among the activities banned as part of GRAP IV are all construction and demolition activities, including for linear public projects such as highways, roads, flyovers, overbridges and pipelines.In a press release on Saturday, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change also urged citizens to remain indoors, “as much as possible”. “Children, elderly and those with respiratory, cardiovascular, cerebrovascular or other chronic diseases to avoid outdoor activities and stay indoors, as much as possible. If required to move outdoors, they are advised to wear mask,” the release said.