Air quality in Indian capital continues to be very poor

Source: Xinhua| 2019-12-09 19:10:23|Editor: yhy
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NEW DELHI, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- The air pollution level in the Indian capital New Delhi and outskirts of the national capital region (NCR) continued to be very poor Monday, officials said.

According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the overall air quality index (AQI) in the city remained in very poor category at 348.

"The AQI in Delhi at 2:00 p.m. local time today was recorded at 348," data released by CPCB said. "The prominent pollutant is PM 2.5 and air quality is in the category of very poor."

It is for the third straight day that people are breathing very poor air in the capital city.

In the first days of last week, an improvement in the air quality was recorded. However, it fell back immediately into a very poor category and even got severe on Friday.

Health officials say very poor air quality causes respiratory illness on prolonged exposure.

As per CPCB, AQI between 0-50 is considered "good", between 51-100 "satisfactory", between 101-200 "moderate", between 201-300 "poor", between 301-400 "very poor", and between 401-500 "severe" and beyond 500 is severe plus emergency.

System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR), an institute monitoring air pollution, has forecast an improvement in the air quality from Thursday evening.

"The overall Delhi AQI is in the higher-end of the very poor category as forecasted," SAFAR said in a statement. "Very calm surface winds and ventilation coefficient forecasted for Wednesday (Dec. 11) a dip in overall AQI within the higher end of the very poor category and few locations for a short period of time may touch the severe category."

"Under the influence of approaching western disturbance, increased wind speed and scattered rainfall is expected by the evening of Thursday (Dec. 12), improvement in AQI is expected."

Last month air quality in the city remained in a hazardous range for several days. The local government even implemented car rationing scheme know as "odd-even" formula to tackle rising air pollution in the capital.

Delhi tops the chart of the most polluted city in the world.

Industrial activities and vehicular traffic are significant contributors to air pollution in the city, along with rampant construction. For the past many years, every year ahead of winters the air quality in Delhi becomes hazardous.

Officials in Delhi blame the stubble burning in neighboring states of Punjab and Haryana for the increasing pollution.

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