Air quality management CANNOT
be a govt monopoly. Govt needs competition. Not criticism.
Today was my 50th meeting with an environment expert – the USC/Caltech educated, IIT Alumnus Piyush Mehta.
Piyush is the only living human I know who has actually lived in the Taj Mahal (as in live 24/7). As part of NEERI, Nagpur – he was part of a team mandated to study pollution by the Supreme Court in the 1990s.
Thirty years ago, as head of sustainability for Taj Hotels, Piyush realised that Taj was more a utility than a hotel chain. 55% of operating revenue went into managing power and water. Taj Hotels wasn’t a company, but a fiefdom. Luxury started with clean water and break free power. All else was subsequent. No other hotel chain came near because no one owned their utilities. Today the entrance lobby at the Taj Mansingh has a screen reading out the AQI inside the hotel and outside. Windows are sealed. It’s a bio bubble. There is no other way to do it. In nearby Oberoi, the sliding entrance door has been replaced by a revolving door because it is better at keeping the pollution out. A new hotel being built in Aerocity has a multi chamber entry – similar to the one we have for entering semiconductor fabs – complete with an air shower.
Piyush understands pollution. Inspite of living in the U.S., he also understands India. As a shrewd Marwari from Jodhpur – he knows that every problem is an opportunity hidden in the solution. He made an interesting point when we started the four hour meeting, “monopolies dont solve problems”.
It got me worried. Isn’t the govt an undisputed monopoly for solving Delhis AQI. And that really is the genesis or the root cause for Delhis choking air. The govt needs competition, not criticism. Ideally the UP, Haryana and Delhi govt should compete on air quality. Reality is that they are a cartel for non-performance.
In fact they try to transfer the blame to the poor choking citizens by blaming private cars. Cars don’t cause AQI crisis at all. Most certainly not private cars. Besides banning cars helps in car sales. The citizens hate it – the car companies love it. The govts externalise blame. The citizens suffer – respiratory mortality is up 1000%. NCR reported 10,000 additional cancer cases. Brain development slows down as the body spends resources battling polluted air and water. Kids are shorter. Diabetes increases.
The issue is particulate matter. Smoke. The smaller the size, the more dangerous. Delhi AQI is getting worse, but there is worse news – the particles are getting smaller. Small particles enter the blood in the lungs and cross over to the brain. Masks don’t keep them out. Purifiers don’t eliminate them.
You need industrial scale electrostatic precipitators with water scrubbing. Even Taj doesn’t have them.
The answer lies in stopping open combustion. Mathura refinery has to be shut down November to Feb. Same for coal power plants and steel foundries. Not private cars.
