NEW DELHI: At least 73 per cent of Delhi residents are ‘not satisfied’ with the air quality here, while 43 per cent of them found it to be ‘better’ than last year, according to a new survey released on Wednesday.
The survey, titled ‘Study on Delhi’s perception and accountability on air pollution’, has been conducted by the United Residents Join Action (URJA), the apex body of the resident welfare associations (RWAs) of Delhi.
The URJA conducted the survey within a 5 km radius of the location of the monitoring stations of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) around 10 locations in Delhi, including Rohini, Anand Vihar, ITO, Siri Fort, Bawana, R K Puram, Patparganj, Lodhi Road, Dwarka and Ashok Vihar.
According to the survey, the awareness levels of citizens living close to these monitoring locations were surprisingly low.
“Eighty nine per cent of the respondents were not aware of any such monitoring, while another 88 per cent had not visibly seen any LED screen displaying real time air quality data. This explains that while nearly the entire urban population is aware of the existence of air pollution, public action needs a spurt, which can only happen, when the public is fully aware of the facts,” the survey report said.
“Seventy-three per cent of the respondents were not satisfied with the air quality. While 43 per cent found it to be better than last year, 30 per cent of the respondents found it to be worse than last year,” it said.
On levels of air pollution, the study says that while PM2.5 level – fine particulate matter in the air with a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometers – in Anand Vihar went above 960 during the period of November to first week of January, the PM2.5 readings at ITO were 1,700 on November 8 and above 900 at Lodhi Road areas. The other locations did not fare better. (AGENCIES)
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