In India, can New Delhi's smog towers reduce pollution? Experts say they're more hot air than clean air
"Turning on an air conditioner in a desert" - that's just one of the ways groups lobbying for clean air in India describe the Supreme Court's current efforts to install smog towers in the capital, New Delhi, one of the most polluted cities in the world. "Stuffing a sock into a gash in the hull of a boat" is another.
In hearings over the past two months, the judges have chastised the Delhi government for not acting on its order last November to install the towers as a pilot project. At the time, the judges were furious at the pollution that permeated the city, and with the government's apathy over what was effectively a public health emergency. "Why are people in this gas chamber?" said Justice Arun Mishra. "It's better to finish them with explosives in one go instead of suffering for [this] long."
For people like Jyoti Pande Lavakare, who co-founded the non-profit organisation Care for Air because she was appalled at the air pollution in her home city, the judges' anger and sense of urgency were music to her ears. Finally, she thought, the government would take action on the toxic air that was reducing the life expectancy of Delhi residents by nine years, according to a report published last month by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago.
The smog tower installed by the Delhi government in Lajpat Nagar market, New Delhi. Photo: Handout
While India's lockdown to curb the spread of Covid-19 has led to cleaner air, the more telling statistic is the air quality index (AQI) reading of 1,200 that Delhi recorded last November. By the country's own AQI standards, any reading above 50 could cause breathing discomfort, while readings above 400 are "highly unacceptable" to health and could cause lung cancer and emphysema, among other conditions.
According to local media, the smog tower that has already been set up is a giant air purifier, more than six metres tall, which removes nearly 80 per cent of the harmful particulate matter it draws in through its inlet unit. It runs on electricity, and is meant to purify the air within a circumference of 500 to 750 metres.
Earlier this month, as some normal activity resumed in India, the Supreme Court resumed its pressure on the Delhi government to set up smog towers. But Lavakare from Care for Air is dismayed rather than thrilled - while she is pleased with the court's pressure on the government, she feels the smog towers are no solution at all.
"They are untested and expensive, have failed in other countries, only work in indoor spaces, and will be a total waste of public funds," she said.
Lavakare's stance is backed by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), a non-profit policy research institution, which estimates that given Delhi's size and the scale of its pollution, 2.5 million smog towers would be needed to clean its air. The city's single current smog tower, installed in the Lajpat Nagar market in January, cost around US$10,000 - so, going by CEEW's figures, the project could cost around US$25 billion.
Delhi is commonly enveloped in smog during the winter months. Photo: AP
Worse, experts say the tower is not reducing pollution, even in the area around it. When five experts - including scientists associated with Care for Air - visited the tower in January, they found the levels of lung-damaging PM2.5 particles some distance away from the tower were lower than those close to it.
"The only way to clean our air is to stop pumping pollutants into it," Lavakare said. "We have to control the emissions at their source, such as making coal-fired power plants conform to emission norms, ensuring a clean and reliable mass transit system, and improving waste management by stopping incineration. The money being spent on smog towers would be put to much better use on these proven measures rather than experimenting with failed technology."
In the Supreme Court hearings, the Delhi government promised the judges that two smog towers would be installed in 10 months. Groups campaigning for better solutions were heartened on Monday when Delhi-based doctor Kaushal Kant Mishra filed an affidavit arguing that the smog towers had no scientific basis, adding that India "cannot be a dumping ground for technology that has failed elsewhere".
Mishra also said the smog towers would in fact be counterproductive because they would create a "a false sense of complacency and assurance" among the public.
A November 2019 protest demanding the New Delhi government take immediate steps to control air pollution. Photo: Reuters
Another argument he advanced in court was that in China - which has experimented with much larger smog towers than the one in Delhi - questions had been raised over the success of such projects, with insufficient data to show positive results.
However, the Supreme Court on Monday rejected Mishra's request to reconsider the smog towers. Justice Arun Mishra said the doctor's arguments carried no merit, and the order to install the towers stood unchanged.
Tanushree Ganguly, programme associate at CEEW, was disappointed at the rejection. "Evidence was presented that smog towers have no impact, but the court did not present any counterargument to prove their impact that would have explained their decision to go ahead," she said.
Delhi is also bracing for the effects of smog season during the Covid-19 pandemic. A March study by researchers at Harvard University's T.H. Chan School of Public Health found that Covid-19 patients living in polluted areas before the pandemic struck were more likely to die from the virus - as their lungs were already compromised - than patients living in areas with cleaner air.
Srinath Reddy, president of the Public Health Foundation of India, in April told the BBC: "If air pollution has already damaged the airways and lung tissue, there is reduced reserve to cope with the onslaught of coronavirus."
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
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