On The Radar: Pollution in South Asia
14 December 2022
As Cyclone Mandous advanced late last week in South Asia, Sri Lanka shut schools as officials said the air quality in most parts of the island nation was unhealthy – partly due to the extreme weather conditions.
AP reports polluted air from neighbouring India was aggravating the problem, authorities said, as a storm in the Bay of Bengal triggered heavy rains and winds across Sri Lanka.
Children and the elderly, in particular, were advised to stay indoors.
In India, while the capital Delhi usually makes headlines for having dangerous levels of air pollution during the winter months, the country’s financial capital Mumbai has been witnessing "very poor" air quality in the last week.
Mumbai, which has a vast coastline and is considered to have better air quality, overtook Delhi pollution levels several times last week. Mumbai has joined a growing list of Indian cities that have bad air, reports BBC.
The level of PM 2.5 - fine particulate matter that can clog lungs and cause a host of diseases - was 308 in the city on Friday morning at 8.30am [local time], compared to Delhi's reading of 259, according to government data.
Levels between 200 to 300 are considered poor and any reading between 300 to 400 is categorised as very poor. Many Indian cities, including Delhi, Kolkata, Kanpur and Patna, often report PM 2.5 levels well above the safe limit.
This year’s winter in Mumbai has been the most polluted in the past four years and the city had no “good” or “satisfactory” air quality days in the last 30 days, according to data from India’s System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (Safar). Last week saw hospitals in Mumbai report an increase in patients coming in with respiratory problems.
- Asia Media Centre
