In India, can New Delhi’s smog towers reduce pollution? Experts say they’re more hot air than clean air
- The Supreme Court has ordered the country’s capital, one of the most polluted cities in the world, to install the towers – with no evidence that they work
- Groups lobbying for clean air say the plan is akin to ‘turning on air conditioner in a desert’, and say the best solution is tackle pollution at the source
In hearings over the past two months, the judges have chastised the Delhi government for not acting on its order last November to install the towers as a pilot project. At the time, the judges were furious at the pollution that permeated the city, and with the government’s apathy over what was effectively a public health emergency. “Why are people in this gas chamber?” said Justice Arun Mishra. “It’s better to finish them with explosives in one go instead of suffering for [this] long.”
For people like Jyoti Pande Lavakare, who co-founded the non-profit organisation Care for Air because she was appalled at the air pollution in her home city, the judges’ anger and sense of urgency were music to her ears. Finally, she thought, the government would take action on the toxic air that was reducing the life expectancy of Delhi residents by nine years, according to a report published last month by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago.
While India’s lockdown to curb the spread of Covid-19 has led to cleaner air, the more telling statistic is the air quality index (AQI) reading of 1,200 that Delhi recorded last November. By the country’s own AQI standards, any reading above 50 could cause breathing discomfort, while readings above 400 are “highly unacceptable” to health and could cause lung cancer and emphysema, among other conditions.
According to local media, the smog tower that has already been set up is a giant air purifier, more than six metres tall, which removes nearly 80 per cent of the harmful particulate matter it draws in through its inlet unit. It runs on electricity, and is meant to purify the air within a circumference of 500 to 750 metres.