There’s a lot India can learn from the Chinese capital which has registered tremendous improvement in its air quality. First, we need a political will to fight the bad-air days
In the first week of November 2018, this writer paid a visit to Beijing and came back quite impressed as to how China was managing its air pollution woes. During the peak hours, when the air was anything but healthy, citizens used masks to protect themselves. In contrast, in India, we are yet to understand the threat that air pollution poses to our health. This is evident by the limited use of protective gear, such as face masks, particularly among our children and the elderly. An interesting aspect about pollution management in Beijing was that though the ambient air quality approached unhealthy levels during the day, it did not stay there for long. There was both a natural and man-made reason for this.
The natural reason pertained to the geographical position of the city which afforded it a constant minimum wind speed. This aided in blowing away noxious gases. The man-made reason was that Beijing’s city administration was acutely aware about the worsening air quality and, thus, ensured that a plethora of measures is taken to clamp down pollution-causing conditions.
For instance, unlike in India, the municipal authorities keep spraying water on busy roads throughout the day at regular intervals. This does not allow the dust to rise. On the other hand, dust vacuum trucks keep tidying up the roadways across the city on a regular basis. The result is a spic and span city infrastructure that does not contribute to pollution.
One amazing aspect of Beijing that would strike everyone is that in spite of the population density, the city bears an unhurried and paced look about it. The main reason for this is the efficacy of the public transport, especially the Beijing subway or the metro. China’s underground transport system has evolved tremendously and is now the mainstay of mass transit. The efficacy of the metro could be gauged by the fact that during rush hours, the frequency of the metro improved to four-minute interval between each arrival.
Add to this, the surface transport. The buses running on electric pantographs complement the metro in a pollution-free manner. In order to make vehicular pollution even less, transport authorities in Beijing have limited the number of private cars on the roads by auctioning registration numbers. This has ensured that not everybody and anybody has been able to add to the vehicular sprawl and pollution.
Comparatively, not long ago, Delhi and Beijing were neck-to-neck in handling pollution but this is now a thing of the past. Beijing today stands way ahead — not as much in clean air as it is in its awareness and efforts to clean up its air. Thanks to the ‘air purity first’ attitude, ambient air quality in Beijing has started to improve steadily; whereas pollution levels in Delhi are rising.
In 2017, the yearly average concentration of PM 2.5, that is the particulate matter with a size of 2.5 microns or less, in Beijing was less than half as that of Delhi. In addition to this, Delhi is also surging ahead of Beijing in yet another unflattering area. The number of “very unhealthy” days, or the period when the pollution levels are very high, is also exceeding four times that of Beijing.
Beijing has now embarked on a fight against pollution and is setting an example for other nations to follow. This, the city has been able to do because of a firm resolve and its air pollution policy. For instance, when the great smog hit central, northern and eastern China in January 2013, it prompted the Chinese Government to launch a comprehensive action plan to tackle air pollution. It was based on a regional approach that identified key polluted regions, such as Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei for a time-bound action plan. It set specific pollution reduction targets and defined ‘10 measures’ to guide the development of regional action plans. Based on these 10 measures, China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection issued implementation rules for Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and surrounding areas. Accordingly, Beijing’s Government formulated action plans that included setting specific targets, such as restricting the total number of vehicles in the city to six million by the end of 2017, reducing coal consumption by 80 per cent till 2020 and meeting annual average PM 2.5 concentration of micrograms per cubic meter (µg/m3) by 2017.
Beijing is implementing these measures quite seriously. For instance, in 2017, the quota for new vehicles was fixed at 150,000 cars, with 60,000 allotted only to fuel-efficient cars. In 2018, this quota was reduced to 100,000, annually. Similarly, in 2017, coal consumption was reduced to 11 million tonnes as Beijing closed all its big coal-fired power stations. Besides, Beijing has also enforced stringent norms to control industrial pollution. In 2016, its environmental watchdog imposed fines totaling $21.8 million. It has also undertaken a massive greening programme. During the past five years, about 4,022 hectares of urban green spaces have been created.
To effectively reduce Beijing’s air pollution, surrounding provinces, such as Tianjin, Hebei, Shandong, Shanxi and Inner Mongolia coordinated and implemented a joint action plan. A combination of Beijing’s own action plan and those of its surrounding regions has paid off. In 2017, Beijing recorded 226 blue-sky days having good air quality, compared to just 176 in 2013. In the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, PM 2.5 levels decreased by about 30 per cent between 2013 and 2017. This has helped Beijing meet the PM 2.5 target it had set for itself in 2013.
The ongoing bad air days in Delhi are a reminder that we need to learn our lessons from the fight Beijing is giving to air pollution.
(The writer is an environmental journalist
