Delhi govt to study its anti-dust measures
The study will assess the effectiveness of anti-smog guns, water sprinkling tankers and mechanised road sweepers in combating air pollution in the city
The Delhi government has decided to commission a study to assess the effectiveness of anti-smog guns, water sprinkling tankers and mechanised road sweepers in combating air pollution in the city.
A senior government official said on Sunday that the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) will soon launch a request for proposal (RPF) for this project, which is likely to be carried out in the summer. “We want to know the results before next winter so we can prioritise where to spend funds and re-wire local measures accordingly. For instance, if mechanised road sweepers prove more effective than water sprinkling tankers, then more mechanised sweepers will be purchased next winter,” said the official requesting anonymity.
As part of the study, low-cost sensors will be deployed on roads across the city where water sprinkling tankers and mechanised road sweepers are used.
In the 2022-23 winter, the Delhi government deployed 80 mechanised road sweeping (MRS) machines, 401 water sprinkling tankers, 193 static anti-smog guns and 169 mobile anti-smog guns across the city to control localised pollution.
Each MRS can cost between ₹8 lakh and ₹28 lakh, while water sprinkling tankers, based on the type of model such as simple tankers that release water on the road to ones that spray water in a fine mist, both vertically and horizontally, can cost between ₹8 lakh and ₹35 lakh. Anti-smog guns are the cheapest of the four devices, costing between ₹50,000 and ₹1 lakh. However, the cost increases if they are truck-mounted and connected to tankers, costing between ₹10 lakh and ₹30 lakh.
A DPCC official, who is aware of the project, said a combination of Delhi’s 40 continuous ambient air quality monitoring stations (CAAQMS) and low-cost sensors will be used to monitor air quality data before and after these devices are used. A low-cost sensor is a small device that can monitor particulate matter or gases in a 1-km radius, making it ideal for analysing air quality in a specific location. While a single CAAQMS can cost up to ₹1.5 crore, these sensors cost just ₹25,000- ₹50,000.
“We will create a grid across the city and these sensors will be deployed on all those stretches where road sweepers, tankers and mobile anti-smog guns are used. The low-cost sensors will only form a part of the study and will eventually be removed,” the official added.
Last week, Delhi environment minister Gopal Rai held a review of the city’s ‘Winter Action Plan’, announcing that concerted efforts by the state government, the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) and different agencies led to an improvement in air quality in 2022.
Rai compared pollution data of 2022 with 2016 – considered Delhi’s most polluted year – stating that not only had the number of ‘good’, ‘satisfactory’ and ‘moderate’ days increased from 109 in 2016 to 160 in 2022, but the number of ‘severe’ air days dropped from 26 in 2016 to six in 2022.
Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director, research and advocacy at Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), said the study, if done in a scientific manner, can help not only Delhi but other states, too. “If we use low-cost sensors, we will know about the hyperlocal impact of these machines. But if the low-cost sensors are paired with our ambient air quality stations, then the data can give a larger picture, especially about the impact on ambient air quality, if any. At present, we are using these devices without knowing how useful they are in the absence of any scientific study or data,” she said.