While Delhi’s air pollution ranks at No. 4 globally, the world’s most polluted place is Rajasthan’s Bhiwadi, followed by UP’s Ghaziabad on Delhi’s eastern border, said report.
New Delhi: With the 14.6 per cent increase in pollution over the last year, Delhi is again the world’s most polluted capital city and is on top position since four consecutive years. Delhi has topped the list of 107 cities in the world.
According to the report, Dhaka has ranked second most capital city after Delhi, followed by N’Djamena in Chad, Dushanbe in Tajikistan and Muscat in Oman. In the Central and South Asia region, including India, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, Bhiwadi in Rajasthan’s Alwar was the most polluted regional city, with an average PM2.5 concentration of 106.2 microgram per cubic metre.
While Delhi’s air pollution ranks at No. 4 globally, the world’s most polluted place is Rajasthan’s Bhiwadi, followed by Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad on Delhi’s eastern border. Ten of the top 15 most polluted cities are in India and mostly around the national capital. 63 Indian cities have dominate the list of 100 most polluted places. More than half are in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.
According to the World Air Quality Report released by IQAir, a Swiss firm, average air pollution, measured in the lethal and microscopic PM2.5 pollutant, is 58.1 micrograms per cubic meter, which is more than 10 times the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) air quality guidelines. Shockingly, none of the Indian cities has met the WHO standard. The report is based on PM2.5 air quality data from 6,475 cities in 117 countries was released globally on Tuesday.
The report has indicated that vehicular emissions, coal-fired power plants, industrial waste, biomass combustion for cooking and the construction sector are major source of pollution. Health impact is even worse with an estimated three deaths every minute linked to air pollution in addition to heart and lung diseases and many other severe health effects.
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