Stop and smell the ????
Starting our series on environment with a small comparison between the 4th largest city in the
| | |
Population | 2,016,582 | 4,352,932 |
Area | 1,558 km² | 174 km² |
Elevation above MSL | 13 m | 6 m |
I have lived in both these cities and been in tune with their respective environmental issues for a while now. The quality of life in
Well I half-hoped (rather expected) that
a.
b. This board’s major function is to advise on any matter concerting improvement of quality of air and prevention, control or abatement of air pollution and to plan and execute programs for control of pollution. Sounds like letting a layman perform an open-heart surgery!!
c. There is next a chapter stating the boundaries of the State Government and the State pollution Control Board, something substantial in nature and then a bunch of mumbo-jumbo.
I am no law expert, I am just another person who can read a few lines and interpret the meaning of words. And I find the act really doesn’t speak much about pollution control. It talks more about being politically correct and finding loop-holes to get a job for the jobless nephew of your twice-removed aunt’s husband’s niece. The Act has not been amended since 1987 and we still are stuck with the same rules and policies and you think the air we breathe is not getting fresher?
| NAAQMP, | | ||
| Industrial Areas | Residential, Rural | Sensitive Areas | |
Carbon Monoxide | 5.0 mg/m3 | 2.0 mg/m3 | 1.0 mg/m3 | 10 mg/m3 |
| 80 µg/m3 | 60 µg/m3 | 15 µg/m3 | 80 µg/m3 |
Nitrogen Oxides | 80 µg/m3 | 60 µg/m3 | 15µg/m3 | 100 µg/m3 |
Lead | 1.0 µg/m3 | 0.75 µg/m3 | 0.5 µg/m3 | 6 µg/m3 |
Particulate Matter size less than 10 microns | 120 µg/m3 | 60 µg/m3 | 50 µg/m3 | Revoked in US |
(pollutants in
I found that there exists a National Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Program (NAAQMP) which was started in 1984 and the program monitors the air quality in
A quick look indicates that
Taking my comparison of Houston and Chennai to the next level, I found Chennai has 4 air quality monitoring stations and
Another search and the new information show 5 monitoring stations in Chennai and have data available for January, February and March of 2005. This report indicates very high levels of respirable particulate matter of size less than 10 microns (a maximum of 108 µg/m3). It makes me wonder what is really happening. Why is the system not transparent? Why can’t I access these data and know the current scenario. Why can’t I as an educated, interested Indian citizen not contribute or comment on one of the major problems the country faces today?
I am yet to discover acts/laws/policies that discuss control measures for different pollutants. This might hold the key to a lot of answers I am looking for. Do we really enforce the strict and state-of-art pollution control techniques? I am also looking for laws/policies for specific industries, like the thermal power plants, the chemical refineries which are known to be big time air polluters.
We live in a world that is taking baby steps towards developing an environmental friendly sustainable attitude.
I’ll keep looking and keep posting my learnings.
1 Comments:
Very informative article !!!
must of put good effort in getting those data !!!
I feel strict implementation of the rules is the only soltion to control pollution.
Seocndly industries should me made aware of their social responsibilities
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