CPCB Lists Cities With No Clean Up Plan | 29 Aug 2018

Of the 102 cities singled out by the Central Government for their alarming pollution levels, under National Clean Air Program, only 73 have submitted a plan of remedial action to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

Background

  • Clean Air Campaign was launched in Delhi on February 10-23, 2018. Later, this Campaign was replicated in about 100 ‘non-attainment cities.’
  • ‘Non-attainment cities’: The non-attainment cities are those that have fallen short of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for over five years. These ‘non-attainment cities’ were marked by CPCB and was asked to implement 42 measures aimed at mitigating air pollution as part of the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP).

National Clean Air Programme (NCAP)

In order to deal with the issue of air pollution in a comprehensive manner at national level, the government came up with National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) with the goal to meet average ambient air quality standards at all location in the country.

NCAP objectives

  • To have effective and efficient ambient air quality monitoring network.
  • Public participation in both planning and implementation of the programmes and policies of government on air pollution.
  • To have a management plan for prevention, control, and abatement of air pollution.

Major Initiatives under NCAP

  • Augmenting Air quality monitoring network
    • Manual monitoring Stations: 1000 manual monitoring stations will be set up in 303 cities from current 691 stations.
    • Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations: Recognizing the need to monitor real time and peak concentration levels of critical pollutants avoiding the time lag,
    • Rural Monitoring Network: Since rural areas have not been covered under National Air Quality Monitoring Programme (NAMP) 50 such stations are proposed to be set up in rural areas under NCAP.
    • Setting up of 10 city Super Network: This network may capture overall air quality dynamics of the nation impact of interventions, trends, investigative measurements, etc. It should generate high quality controlled data and will represent national air quality dynamics.
  • Air Quality Forecasting System: AQFS is a state of the art modelling system which will forecasts the following day's air quality. 
  • Setting up Air Information Centre- An Air Information Center will be responsible for data analysis, interpretation, dissemination including through GIS platform.
  • Three tier mechanism for review of monitoring, assessment and inspection for implementation: A three-tier system will include real time physical data collection and archiving and data analytics infrastructure, and action trigger system. 
  • National Emission Inventory: An emission inventory is an accounting of the amount of pollutants discharged into the atmosphere. An emission inventory will contains the total emissions for one or more specific air pollutants, originating from all source categories in a certain geographical area and within a specified time span.
  • Technology Assessment Cell- TAC will evaluate the technologies having significance in reference to prevention, control and abatement of pollution.
  • Other Initiatives
    • Review of ambient air quality standards and emission standards.
    • International Cooperation including sharing of International Best Practices on Air Pollution.
    • Intensive Awareness, Training and Capacity Building Drive.
    • Technology Support.
    • Issuance of Notification on Dust Management (Road dust and C&D).
    • Indoor Air Pollution Monitoring & Management.
    • Air Pollution Health Impact Studies.
    • Extensive Plantation Drive.
    • A network of Technical Institutions- Knowledge Partners.
    • Certification system for monitoring instruments.
    • Technology Assessment Cell.
    • Institutional Framework.
    • Air Quality Management Plan for 100 Non-Attainment Cities. 

National Ambient Air Quality Standards

National Ambient Air Quality Standards are the standards for ambient air quality with reference to various identified pollutant notified by the Central Pollution Control Board under the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981.

List of pollutants under NAAQS: PM10, PM2.5, SO2, NO2, CO, NH3, Ozone, Lead, Benzene, Benzo-Pyrene, Arsenic and Nickel.