Delhi, NCR ranked most polluted cities in the world: Report -Governance Now

Delhi, NCR ranked most polluted cities in the world: Report

The national capital was ranked first among 62 polluted cities, said a study by NGO Greenpeace

GN Bureau | March 5, 2019

#Pollution #India #Gurugram #Greenpeace #report #Delhi #NCR #air quality #death #air pollution

India's national capital region (NCR) has been ranked as the world's most polluted region in the world, said a report by NGO Greenpeace.

The latest data compiled in the IQAir AirVisual 2018 World Air Quality Report shows Gurugram to be the most polluted city in the world followed by Ghaziabad at the second spot.

According to the study, 20 out of the 25 most-polluted cities across the world are in India. The remaining five out of 25 most polluted cities in the world are spread in China, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.

Worryingly, air pollution is likely to cause the death of an estimated seven million lives globally in the next year while costing the world’s economy nearly US $225 billion, said the report which was released on March 5, in Jakarta.

It highlights a widespread but unequal distribution of PM2.5 pollution and limited access to public information. Although, Delhi typically receives most media coverage as one of the world’s 'pollution capitals', the Indian capital 'only' ranks 10th for annual PM2.5 concentration. Other cities across Northern India and Pakistan have a higher recorded annual PM2.5 level, with nearby Gurugram narrowly resulting in the highest annual concentration of any global city recorded here during 2018.

Pujarini Sen, Greenpeace India said, “IQAir AirVisual 2018 World Air Quality Report is a reminder to us indicating that our efforts and actions to reduce the invisible killer, i.e., air pollution are not enough, and we need to do much more than already planned and done. If we want India to breathe clean air, it’s high time that our plans such as NCAP, GRAP, CAP etc. become much more stringent, aggressive, legally binding and most of all implementable at the ground rather than being just used a political statement without much happening at the ground.”

According to the report, air pollution will cause around 7 million premature deaths globally next year and have a major economic impact.

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