A new attempt at purifying New Delhi’s notoriously polluted air will see 40 giant fans push out filtered air in the heart of the Indian capital’s posh downtown shopping district, but the US$2 million “smog tower” has no shortage of doubters who say it will not help a city notorious for some of the world’s dirtiest air.
The 25m tower is meant to filter air over a 1km2 radius around the swanky shops and cafes in Connaught Place. The neighbourhood’s British colonial-era buildings are hit by a gray-yellow smog every winter.
“Smog is an annual phenomenon because of particulate matter. So we are [trying] to contain this,” project head Anwar Ali Khan said.
Photo: AFP
The engineer added that the goal is to eliminate up to 50 percent of the most deadly PM2.5 — fine particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrometers — from the air.
The city has said that more towers could be built if the experiment works. Chief Minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal once called the Indian capital a “gas chamber” because of its intense pollution.
Experts say that while smog towers might work, they are just a pinprick against the relentless foe of vehicle fumes, construction dirt, industrial emissions and the agricultural stubble burning that engulf the city of more than 20 million.
“Installing smog towers has never been, and will never be a solution,” Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air analyst Sunil Dahiya said. “If we really, really want to address pollution, it has to be addressed at the source.”
Dahiya said that the tower will be powered by regular grid-based electricity with more than 70 percent of India’s electricity coming from coal, adding to pollution elsewhere in the country.
China built a 60m high smog tower in the badly polluted city of Xian, but the experiment has not spread to other cities. Delhi’s attempts to halve the number of vehicles allowed on the city’s roads have not had much success.
“Every government claims that they’re working to reduce pollution, but we don’t see the results,” Delhi resident Pradeep Kumar said.
Engineers hope to complete the smog tower by Aug. 15, when India celebrates Independence Day. More mega purifiers are already in the works in Delhi and Bengaluru.
“The objective is not to clear entire Delhi’s air, it is to create special zones where people can breathe,” Khan said.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese