Dearth of equipment to measure AQI in villages

Aman Sood

Tribune News Service

Patiala, November 3

Despite moderate level of pollution in October, the air quality has been dropping sharply with each passing day in Punjab. Over the past few days, the air quality has dipped from moderate to poor category with October 31 being the worst day.

The air quality index (AQI) in Amritsar was 255, followed by Ludhiana (254), Jalandhar (250), Mandi Gobindgarh (249), Khanna (246) and Patiala (229). The AQI of 0-50 is considered good, 51-100 satisfactory, 101-200 moderate, 201-300 poor, 301-400 very poor and 401-500 severe.

Over 7,000 farm fires in 3 days

• With the sowing of wheat fast approaching, the state has witnessed 7,690 stubble-burning cases over the past three days and over 18,000 cases to date
• Farmers claim with no subsidy for stubble management, there is no option but to burn their fields to save on labour and other charges

Trouble for villagers

The 24 monitoring stations in villages show that villagers themselves are the first sufferers of farm fires, which affect the cities later. —Karunesh Garg, Member secretary, PPCB

Interestingly, while majority of the farm fires take place in villages, the air quality index is measured only in cities. Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) officials said they had about 40 portable machines to record air quality in villages. “The ratings on these machines tell a different story with air quality in the ‘poor to very poor’ category in terms of particulate matter,” they said. Costly equipment, they said, could not be placed in all villages and, therefore, cities were chosen.

The officials said manual machines to record the air quality located in villages put it in “poor to very poor” category in terms of particulate matter. “Any village where stubble burning takes place deteriorates the air quality of that village and its surroundings. Due to poor air velocity, villagers inhaling such air are the worst sufferers,” they said.

As The Tribune team visited some villages where stubble burning was rampant, it became almost impossible to breathe. “We are living in such conditions almost for a fortnight every year when the farms are set on fire,” said Balraj Ghumman, a resident of Kherha Jattan.

From the next season, the PPCB has decided to install 18 more manual monitoring stations at as many district headquarters and three

Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations (CAAQMS) at Dera Baba Nanak, Derabassi and Naya Nangal to check the air quality. The CAAQMS will help the PPCB monitor real-time air quality. Any such station requires an investment of Rs 1 crore — Rs 80 lakh installation charges and Rs 20 lakh running expenditure. Meanwhile, 18 manual monitoring stations will be set up in Faridkot, Fazilka, Moga, Mansa, Tarn Taran, Barnala, Sangrur, Malerkotla, Fatehgarh Sahib, SAS Nagar, Hoshiarpur, SBS Nagar, Muktsar, Pathankot, Gurdaspur, Kapurthala, Ferozepur and Ropar.