Artificial Rain In Delhi: Government To Take A Call If Pollution Escalates To Severe Plus
As the air quality in many parts of Delhi continues to be in the severe category for the third consecutive day after Diwali, the Arvind Kejriwal government has said that a decision on further mitigation measures will be taken in a few days.
On Wednesday, Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai said that the government is closely monitoring the city's pollution levels and will consider measures such as artificial rain and implementing the odd-even rule if the situation escalates to the 'Severe' plus category.
When will Delhi consider artificial rains??
"The decision will be made based on observations over the next two to three days," he said.
"We will reach this decision (artificial rain and the implementation of odd-even) after observing the situation for the next two to three days. If the pollution escalates to the 'Severe' plus category, measures will be implemented to mitigate it," Gopal Rai said.
Why plan for artificial rain was postponed?
Last week, the Delhi government had proposed to induce artificial rain through?cloud seeding?to reduce the national capital's air pollution levels.
Rai had said that artificial rains could be attempted in Delhi around November 20-21 when the conditions become favourable.
However, the proposal and the plan to introduce the odd-even car rationing system in Delhi from November 13-20 were put on hold after the national capital received widespread rains on Friday, bringing down the air pollution levels.
The rains resulted in Delhi having the cleanest Diwali in eight years. But the air quality again took a turn for the worse on Monday after people defied a ban on firecrackers on Diwali.
The air quality in Delhi, which slipped to the severe category on Monday, has remained the same since.
What are the containment measures??
On Wednesday, the Delhi Fire Service deployed water sprinklers at 13 hotspots across the national capital to combat air pollution.
The 13 identified pollution hotspots include Narela, Anand Vihar, Mundka, Dwarka, Punjabi Bagh, R K Puram, Rohini, Bawana, Okhala, Jahangirpuri, Wazirpur and Mayapuri.
"Fire department has resumed the water sprinklers on all 13 hotspots to curb the pollution. So far, 13 fire tenders have been mobilised for the same," said Atul Garg, the Director, DFS.
On Tuesday, as many as 215 mobile anti-smog guns were used to sprinkle water on roads across the city.
There will be 70 mobile anti-smog guns for the 70 Assembly constituencies of Delhi for the purpose.?
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