JSPCB, CEED and CSTEP put emphasis on convergent efforts to improve air quality in the state
Jharkhand State Pollution Control Board (JSPCB), Centre for Environment and Energy Development (CEED) and Centre for Study of Science, Technology and Policy (CSTEP) jointly released the emission
inventory related to air pollution scenario of six cities for Jharkhand today.
The report explores the various polluting sectors in cities of Ramgarh, Hazaribagh, Sahibganj, Dumka, Pakur, and Chaibasa and their share towards the particular city’s total emission load. This study looked into different sectors and corresponding activities such as domestic, commercial, industry, construction and demolition, open burning, transportation, and road dust contributing towards air pollution. An emission inventory (EI) with a detailed estimation of emission loads from various sectors as well as their spatial distribution helps the cities and state administration in formulating clean air action plan and sectoral control strategies for air pollution mitigation.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr Sanjay Srivastava, Assistant Scientific Officer, JSPCB said, “The State government has prioritised reducing air pollution as an important public issue. As per the National Clean Air Program, the Board has already prepared a Clean Air Action Plan for 3 cities (Ranchi, Jamshedpur and Dhanbad). While targeting tier 2 and 3 cities, it is making action plans for 6 more cities namely Ramgarh, Hazaribagh, Chaibasa, Sahibganj, Pakur and Dumka to control the level of air pollution. As per the emission inventory report the board is taking control measures accordingly.”
Elaborating the key highlights of the report, Dr Pratima Singh, Senior Research Scientist at CSTEP, Bengaluru said that, “Understanding air quality levels of various pollutants in the city is crucial to develop city action plans and implementation strategy. Hence, conducting emission inventory and source apportionment studies will help to estimate sectoral and pollutant share. With clarity in the emission loads and concentration values, various departments can collaborate to execute the implementation to control measures for clean air in the cities. A proactive approach by the govt of Jharkhand to conduct emission inventory studies for 6 cities in the state to understand the air pollution levels is a excellent move to ensure that these cities can work on the air pollution challenges. Jharkhand being an industrial state, has immense responsibility towards its citizens to provide clean air.”
This report indicates that the particulate matter (PM) emissions were found to be the highest in Ramgarh, followed by Hazaribagh, Pakur, Sahibganj, Chaibasa, and Dumka. Although the population of Ramgarh was less than that of Sahibganj and Hazaribagh, high particulate matter emissions over the airshed could be attributed to the presence of a large number of heavy industries within the city and in the neighbourhood. PM2.5 emissions were predominantly contributed by transport at Dumka, Chaibasa, and Hazaribagh. Domestic sector was found to be the major contributor of PM2.5 emissions at Sahibganj and Pakur, whereas industries contributed significantly at Ramgarh.
Addressing the conference, Dr Manish Kumar, Director of Research and Development at CEED discussed the role of precise air pollutant emission inventories in air quality management in addition to the outputs of various climate and health exposure models. Dr. Kumar highlighted the potential sources of uncertainties in existing bottom-up emission inventories. He quoted that compiling precise activity data from domestic, transport and open waste-burning sectors in addition to the geographically representative Emission Factors will help in improving air pollutant emission estimates in Jharkhand. He further added that CEED is committed to provide handholding support to the government agencies in facilitating an informed discussion through usage of data & sciences and creating awareness on clean air.
The conference was also addressed by Mr Arup Nandi (Chief of Research, CSTEP), Mr Navneet Kumar (SWM expert, State Urban Development Agency, Jharkhand), Mr Udhaya Kumar (Senior Associate, CSTEP) among other notable people. The technical session witnessed participation of Dr Atri Gangopadhyay (Pulmonologist), Mr Utsav Kashyap (Tata Steel), Dr Anil Kumar (NIAMT, Ranchi), Dr Bhaskar Singh (CUJ, Jharkhand) and Anirban Banerji (CSTEP) among others.
The workshop brought several key recommendations such as identification of pollution hotspots and localised solutions of pilferages, public education strategies on higher pollution days, and awarding people and key stakeholders. The event was attended by key representatives of prominent civil society organisations, academic institutions, doctors, research think-tanks, and citizen groups across the state.