Over 70L litres water sprinkled at 13 pollution hotspots in 36 days
New delhi: Over 70 lakh litres of water was sprinkled at 13 pollution hotspots in the past 36 days by the Delhi Fire Services to hold down dust as a measure to improve the deteriorating air quality in the city, officials here said on Sunday.
According to the Fire Department, about two lakh litres of water is being sprinkled every day by its personnel at 13 places declared as pollution hotspots by the Delhi government.
The places are Jahangirpuri, Narela, Ashok Vihar, Vivek Vihar, Dwarka, Mundka, Rohini, Wazirpur, Okhla, Bawana, Anand Vihar, Punjabi Bagh and R K Puram.
A total of 15 fire tenders have been pressed into service to sprinkle water at the identified hotspots and around 45 fire personnel have been deployed for the task, said Atul Garg, Director of Delhi Fire Service.
"On average, two lakh litres of water is sprinkled every day. It has been an ongoing drive ever since the directions were issued by the Delhi government. The exercise began on October 17 and since then our personnel have sprinkled more than 70 lakh litres of water across 13 identified hotspots to curb dust pollution," he said.
The exercise is being carried out for nearly two hours in the morning and two hours in the evening every day, Garg added.
Pollution levels breached the emergency threshold twice this month in Delhi as a grey apocalyptic smog enveloped the city for days, blotting out the sun and smudging landmarks from view.
According to the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP), the air quality is considered in the severe plus or emergency category if PM2.5 and PM10 levels persist above 300 g/m3 and 500 g/m3 for more than 48 hours.
Delhi witnessed six severe air days on the trot from November 4 to November 9. It had recorded seven severe air days in November last year.
Pollution levels on Diwali this year and the day after were the maximum in the last four years.
Meanwhile, Environment Minister Gopal Rai on Sunday said that the Public Works Department of the Delhi government had installed 23 anti-smog guns at key intersections and construction sites across the city to deal with pollution. He added that 150 water tankers have also been deployed to settle dust at different locations here.
Rai said that to further reduce the rising pollution levels in the city PWD officials have been instructed to sprinkle water on the trees, roads and on construction sites.
He said, "I have also instructed the PWD officials to increase the number of tankers further so that all the key roads of Delhi can be covered. If necessary we will install more anti-smog guns as well at the key intersections of Delhi."
