NEW DELHI: For the third straight day, Delhiites woke up to strong showers that affected traffic and left many areas waterlogged. Several parts of the National Capital Region (NCR), including Noida and Faridabad, also witnessed moderate to heavy rains on Monday.
Traffic was disrupted due to waterlogging in several areas including Ganesh Chowk Mother Dairy towards Laxminagar Metro Station, Raja Ram Kohli Marg on the Geeta Colony to Chacha Nehru hospital carriageway, Sahid Gujram Singh Marg near Somerville school Vasundhara Enclave. Waterlogging was also witnessed in Yusuf Sarai on the IIT to AIIMS carriageway. Waterlogging was reported on Sri Aurobindo Marg (both carriageways) under Yusuf Sarai foot-overbridge. Inundated roads caused traffic snarls in capital's Dakshinpuri and Brahampuri areas.
Delhi's regional met office on Sunday had forecast rain for the next three days. It forecast moderate rain for Monday with the maximum and minimum temperatures hovering around 29 and 25 degrees Celsius, respectively. On Sunday, till 8.30 am, Safdarjung received 24.6 mm of rain. It recorded another 35.9 mm in the next nine hours, met officials said. As many as 45 trees were uprooted in the rains across the capital, according to reports from the corporations and the traffic police. Delhi government had in April directed civic agencies to ensure that all their drains were desilted so that the problems of the past years are not repeated. Due to choked drains, most of the major stretches were submerged in knee-deep water.
At several places, commuters were stuck at Metro stations after the entrance and exit gates were flooded. Flyovers at Dhaula Kuan, Moolchand and Minto Bridge were waterlogged too. A road near Kaushik Enclave in north Delhi's Burari reportedly caved in following which the traffic police alerted commuters not to take that route, a traffic police officer said.
After recording above normal rains in August, Delhi-NCR has been receiving fairly widespread rainfall activity in the last three days. In fact, we can say that September has started on a rainy note for Delhi-NCR, as several heavy showers have been witnessed until now. Even though in September rainfall activity reduces significantly and become nearly half of what we receive in the core monsoon months of July and August, but it has been a different story this time. The reason for these reduced rains is that during mid-September, monsoon starts retreating from most parts of the country.
Heavy shower makes air quality better
NEW DELHI: With continuous rain, Delhi has witnessed much change in air quality and the PM 2.5 level also stayed just moderate. However, if the condition persists, there is a chance of a dip in the air quality, predicted the environmental experts. Delhi NCR witnessed continuous rain for the last three days which has brought down the temperature and the air became healthy. "If such condition remains and a depression like situation occurs, the air quality might worsen," said an official of CPCB.
This year Delhi has witnessed an overall better time than in the past years. Recently, a study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has found that the severe air pollution in the national capital, reduced solar power generation capacity by 12 per cent in the period 2016-2017. The quantum of power lost is expected to exceed the profit margins of many solar installations leading to questions over the government's planned solar push. The study published in the journal Energy & Environmental Science revealed that air pollution caused a loss in solar output to the tune of 9 per cent in cities like Beijing, Ulan Bator and Kolkata. It is estimated that the value of the loss in revenue from solar power could be around $20 million for Delhi while the corresponding loss figure for Kolkata is $16 million.
Air pollution in India is estimated to kill 1.5 million people every year. India has the world's highest death rate from chronic respiratory diseases and asthma, according to the WHO. In Delhi, poor quality air damages irreversibly the lungs of 2.2 million or 50 per cent of children. In November 2017, in an event known as the Great Smog of Delhi, the air pollution spiked far beyond acceptable levels.
Levels of PM 2.5 and PM 10 particulate matter hit 999 micrograms per cubic meter, while the safe limits for those pollutants are 60 and 100 respectively.