Will Delhi become the world’s most polluted city?

If you live in Delhi, then you won’t need me to tell you how bad things have been over the last few days.

But if you don’t, here’s what it’s been like.

 

The air in Delhi has always been laced with poison. I am now used to feeling my eyes burn and my throat scratch each time I leave my home. The last time I had my chest x-rayed, the doctor looked at the results and asked me if I was a heavy smoker. I said that I had never smoked in my life. “Oh yes!” He said. “The price of living in Delhi. That explains it.”

 

   In any other country anyone in my position would’ve been appalled to hear that just by breathing the air I had done so much damage to my lungs that doctors asked how much I smoked. It is a measure how resigned we are to having ourselves poisoned by Delhi’s toxic air, that both the doctor and I smiled wanly and moved onto other things.

 

   And I am one of the lucky ones. I can afford to install air purifiers in my house. I have learned not to be shocked when my wife changes the filters on the purifiers and tells me how black they have become from the noxious air. I don’t have to work outdoors. I don’t even have to stand in queues for buses or walk distances to work.

 

   Can you imagine what it is like for people who work on the streets? For those who run stalls, work as guards or need to walk to work?

 

   That’s what living in Delhi is like normally. But every winter it gets worse. Pollution levels rise to such heights that we are told that the air is deadly compared to normal days when it is merely dangerously unhealthy. And over the last week, the poison in the air has reached a record high. It is no longer a silent killer: it is now all too visible. Noxious clouds swirl around the city making it difficult for people to see more than a few feet ahead, for aeroplanes to takeoff and for drivers to see where they’re going. It is as though the pollution is mocking us. As though it is saying: here I am and there’s absolutely nothing you can do about it!

 

   Why is there nothing we can do about it? Why are we so helpless that we watch impotently as Delhi becomes the world’s most polluted city? It is because all we can do is watch as politicians lose themselves in endless quarrels, squabbling with each other as the poison enters our blood streams.

 

   The first problem is that nobody can agree on what causes the pollution. We know that because of Delhi’s geographical position, the city is prone to fog and that the winds do not lift smog out of the air. But Delhi was the flourishing capital of India for ages. So why has the noxious air only become such a killer over the last decade or so?

 

   Politicians do not agree on the causes. For several years, the Aam Admi Party told us that the pollution was caused by farmers in Punjab and Haryana burning stubble to clear their fields for planting.

 

   This explanation was so popular that many people expanded on it. Apparently Punjab’s farmers did not plant rice till a few decades ago so there was no stubble burning. But now that they had been encouraged to do so, they discovered that they had to burn off the stubble before the new crop could be planted. Another theory had it that the rice planting cycle had now changed so that stubble burning coincided with the winter, when there was fog in Delhi anyway.

 

   When these explanations were first offered, Punjab was run by the Congress which was being bitterly opposed by AAP in the state. The then Congress chief minister responded that if stubble burning was the problem then why wasn’t there more pollution in Punjab’s cities? And what about stubble burning in Haryana which had a BJP government? Why was nobody complaining as much about that?

 

   Since then AAP has come to power in Punjab so the view of AAP’s Delhi government has altered. It now says that stubble burning is not the problem. Not only was it never the main cause of the pollution but Punjab’s farmers have now stopped burning stubble because of the magnificent efforts of the AAP government in the state.

 

"It will certainly help if the government takes steps to reduce the number of cars on the roads. And stubble burning in neighbouring states must be stopped."

   So what does AAP think is the problem? It’s all because of vehicles, it says. And yes, the number of vehicles on the roads in Delhi has multiplied several times over the last decade. And Delhi’s relatively few black and yellow taxis have been replaced by thousands of Ola-Uber types of cabs, adding to the problem.

 

   Though AAP is less keen to acknowledge it, I am pretty sure that Delhi’s wild construction boom also has something to do with how poisonous the air is. For example, in the colony where I live, the number of old buildings being demolished so that new ones can come up has reached record levels. None of the construction is actively supervised by any official authority, so it continues late into the night and on holidays, spewing dirt and dust into the air.

 

   The government clearly accepts that by halting construction and reducing vehicular traffic, it can lower pollution levels because it has just announced such measures in the last week. But these are short term desperate remedies. They are band aids hurriedly pasted on gaping, bloody wounds.

 

   We do know what will make a difference in the long term. Things will get better if construction is reduced and regulated. Apart from the pollution, Delhi’s infrastructure is already collapsing from the pressure of new buildings.

 

   It will certainly help if the government takes steps to reduce the number of cars on the roads. And stubble burning in neighbouring states must be stopped.

 

   But here’s the thing: none of this will happen.

 

   Stubble burning is such a political hot potato that all parties will do nothing except continuing to lie about it. Construction is such an important source of income for politicians that nothing will be done about it even as Delhi’s roads, water supply and power collapse.

 

   As for the number of cars, they will not reduce even though there are global precedents for controlling vehicular traffic from such cities as London and Singapore. Any move to do this will be politically unpopular.

 

   And there is another key factor: the citizens of Delhi have demonstrated that they’re happy enough to breathe this noxious air and that they will not allow pollution to become an issue that can swing elections.

 

   So why should politicians care?

 

   In most countries a public health emergency of the sort that Delhi has faced over the last week would lead to high level meetings at the Prime Ministerial level. The Environment Ministry would swing into action.

 

   None of this has happened in India. The Prime Minister has been away. So has the Environment Minister and in any case nobody I asked last week even knows the Environment Minister’s name. Instead the BJP has blamed AAP. And AAP has blamed the BJP.

 

   I am sorry if all of this sounds unduly pessimistic but it is the truth. We have the same discussions after year. And still, nothing changes. Nor do citizens push politicians enough for them to make any changes or look for solutions.

 

   What this means, in effect, is that while there will be temporary measure of the sort that have been imposed this week, Delhi will go down in history as the one great city that was killed off by the air its citizens have to breathe. Already foreigners are refusing postings to Delhi. It is only a matter of time before Indians start doing the same. Even if individuals are philosophical about their own health, nobody will want to move to city where their children will face lung disease and reduced life spans.

 

   Bit by bit, Delhi will die. It will choke itself to death because of third rate politicians and apathetic citizens.