India Is Home To 15 Of The Top 20 Polluted Cities In The World, Delhi NCR Is The Worst

India's pollution crisis is not getting any better and continues to remains the country with worst polluted air, according to a study. The IQAir AirVisual 2018 World Air Quality Report showed that Delhi remains the most polluted capital city across the world last year.

It was not just Delhi, but the entire national capital region (NCR) emerged as the most polluted region in the world, with Gurugram being the worst affected, followed by Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Noida, and Bhiwadi in the top six.

IQAir AirVisual 2018 World Air Quality Report

Faisalabad in Pakistan, Hotan in China and Lahore were the only three non-Indian cities in the top 10.

The study conducted by IQAir AirVisual and Greenpeace has revealed that as a region, South Asia suffers from the worst air quality in the world.?

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Out of the over 3000 cities included, 64% exceeded the WHO’s annual exposure guideline for fine particulate matter, also known as PM2.5. 100% of measured cities within the Middle East and Africa exceeded this guideline, while 99% of cities in South Asia, 95% of cities in Southeast Asia, and 89% of cities in East Asia also exceed this target. As many areas lack up-to-date public air quality information and are for this reason not represented in this report, the total number of cities exceeding the WHO PM2.5 threshold is expected to be higher," the report stated.

It noted that at a country level, weighted by population, Bangladesh emerges as the most polluted country on average, closely followed by Pakistan and India.

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The report also highlights how Beijing, once considered the most polluted city in the world, has shown remarkable improvement.

“China’s skies remain gray but progress is impressive,” the report said adding that Beijing ranks now as the 122nd most polluted city in the world.

However, as far as India is concerned, the report said the actions taken so far has been ineffective to control the toxic air pollution.??

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“If we want India to breathe clean air, it’s high time that our plans such as NCAP, GRAP, CAP etc. become much more stringent, aggressive, legally binding and most of all implementable at ground rather than being just used a political statement without much happening at ground,” Pujarini Sen of Greenpeace India said.?

According to Greenpeace, air pollution will take an estimated seven million lives globally in the next year, while costing the world’s economy nearly $225 billion.

Meanwhile another study which assessed the impact of stubble burning, one of the biggest pollutants has stated that its economic cost for Punjab, Haryana and Delhi is around Rs 2 lakh crore a year.

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The study by US-based International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and partner institutes found that living in districts with air pollution caused from intense stubble burning has been a leading risk factor for acute respiratory infection, particularly in children less than five years.?

"Poor air quality is a recognised global public health epidemic, with levels of airborne particulate matter in Delhi spiking to 20 times the World Health Organization's safety threshold during certain days," said Samuel Scott, IFPRI Research Fellow and co-author of the study.