The World Health Organization (WHO) called upon member-countries in the South-East Asia Region on Wednesday to aggressively address the double burden of household and ambient (outdoor) air pollution. The region accounts for 34 percent or 2.4 million of the 7 million premature deaths globally caused by household and ambient air pollution together every year. "Though there is a progress in the region as most countries have national action plans for prevention and control of non-communicable diseases, which incorporate measures to address household air pollution and keeping a check on the quality of air in cities, we need to do much more and that too with an urgent and aggressive approach," said Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director, WHO South-East Asia. The data released by WHO on Tuesday showed Delhi and Varanasi among the 14 Indian cities that figured in a list of 20 most polluted ones in the world in terms of PM2.5 levels in 2016. The global health body also said nine out of 10 people in the world breathe air containing high levels of pollutants. As per the latest WHO report, of the 3.8 million deaths caused by household air pollution globally, the region accounts for 1.5 million or 40% deaths, and of the 4.2 million global deaths due to ambient air pollution, 1.3 million or 30% are reported from the region. Dr Khetrapal Singh also drew attention to the example of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Scheme under which in the last two years 37 million women living below the poverty line were provided free LPG connections to support them to switch to clean household energy use. The country targets to reach 80 million households by 2020. "The availability of clean household energy affects us all and our families and is a key to sustainable development. All countries in the region are making efforts to expand the availability of clean fuels and technologies, however, over 60% population still do not have access to clean fuel," she added. According to the experts, the combined effects of household air pollution and ambient air pollution has become increasingly hard to address if not tackled early. Greenpeace India said the data released by WHO on Tuesday clearly shows that India needs to do more towards solving the air pollution crisis. It said the WHO report contains data for only 32 Indian cities for the year 2016 while Central Pollution Control Board and State Pollution Control Boards monitor air quality data for 300 cities in the country.

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