Noida’s air quality dips, Ghaziabad enters ‘very poor’ zone again
- | Saturday | 19th December, 2020
Ghaziabad: Due to varying wind speeds, a slight increase in pollution levels was seen across the three cities of Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad on Friday, with the latter climbing up a notch to enter the “very poor” air quality category, after a gap of five days. Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad have been in the “poor” and “moderate” air quality categories since December 14 due to better ventilation. However, pollution levels rose despite no external source of emissions such as stubble burning. According to weather analysts, this was due to wind speeds which slightly dropped on Friday.
Ghaziabad: Due to varying wind speeds, a slight increase in pollution levels was seen across the three cities of Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad on Friday, with the latter climbing up a notch to enter the “very poor” air quality category, after a gap of five days. Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad have been in the “poor” and “moderate” air quality categories since December 14 due to better ventilation. However, pollution levels rose despite no external source of emissions such as stubble burning. According to weather analysts, this was due to wind speeds which slightly dropped on Friday.
“The wind speed on Friday was realised at around 15 kmph, of north westerly direction, while wind speed on Thursday was high, at 20 kmph. The ventilation conditions will remain almost the same for the next two days, until December 22 when the speed and direction may change due to an upcoming western disturbance,” said Kuldeep Srivastava, head, regional weather forecasting centre, IMD. According to the central pollution control board (CPCB), the air quality index (AQI) of Noida, on a scale of 0 to 500, on Friday was 288, against 267 a day earlier, both in the “poor” category.
Greater Noida’s air quality was 297, against 283 a day earlier, both “poor”. At 304, the AQI of Ghaziabad was in the lower end of the ‘very poor’ category, against 277 in the “poor” category a day earlier. The AQI between 101 and 200 is considered “moderate“, between 201 and 300 is “poor“, between 301 and 400 is considered “very poor“, and above 400 is considered “severe“. The fine particles or pollutants PM2.5 levels also rose, and are currently three to two times higher than the standard.
On Friday, PM2.5 for the past 24-hours in Noida was recorded at 141.95 microgrammes per cubic metres (µg/m3) against 117.63µg/m3 a day earlier. The PM2.5 for Greater Noida was 148.84µg/m3 against 126.63µg/m3 a day earlier. The PM2.5 levels for Ghaziabad on Friday also rose to 156.21µg/m3 against 125.83µg/m3 on Thursday. The safe limit for PM2.5 is 60µg/m3. According to the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (Safar), the AQI is likely to oscillate between “poor” and “very poor” levels, but would likely deteriorate from next week. “The current conditions of better ventilation are likely to continue for the next two days and are likely to decrease thereafter.
Hence, AQI is forecasted to stay in the “poor” and “very poor” categories on December 19. It is likely to deteriorate in the lower end of “very poor” category on December 20 and further deteriorate on December 22,” said Safar statement on Friday.
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