Delhi turns to artificial rain to ease air pollution crisis

Scientists in Delhi Plan Artificial Rain to Reduce Smog

Scientists in India’s capital Delhi have drawn up plans to induce artificial rain in an unconventional attempt to reduce smog, as authorities scramble for ways to ease the country’s catastrophic air pollution.

The plan involves dropping salts or silver iodide into clouds from an aeroplane in order to spur the formation of rain droplets in a process known as “cloud seeding”. Backers hope the resulting rain will help to clear pollution from the dirty air.

Delhi’s regional government, which is organising the project with scientists from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, is waiting for clearances from national government bodies and hopes to finalise the project this week.

The scheme comes after air quality in north India returned to crisis levels. Delhi was this week the most polluted city in the world, according to Swiss group IQAir.

IQAir’s air quality index, which measures levels of deadly pollutants such as very small particles known as PM2.5, routinely soars above 400 in Delhi in November — a level considered “hazardous” for the capital’s 30mn people.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Impacted:

1. Goal 3: Good Health and Well-being
2. Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
3. Goal 13: Climate Action

Cloud Seeding as a Solution

Cloud seeding is “an intervention to bring some respite”, said Sachchida Nand Tripathi, a professor at IIT Kanpur working on the rain-making project. “When you have a situation like that, when you have several weeks with AQI more than 400 . . . seeding could be a more viable option.”

Others have criticized the plan. “What the government is trying to do is, number one, look like they’re doing something,” said Jyoti Pande Lavakare, a clean air activist. “Number two, bring down temporarily — in kind of a firefighting mode — these toxic levels of pollution when they become an issue of political salience.”

International Attention and China’s Efforts

International attention on India’s air pollution has become a source of embarrassment for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. During this month’s Cricket World Cup, players from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and England skipped practice sessions or used asthma inhalers to cope with the dirty air.

China has for decades maintained an arsenal of aircraft and artillery for cloud seeding, which is tasked with reducing damage from hail storms, easing droughts and improving air quality, as well as helping ensure good weather around high-profile events such as the 2008 Beijing Olympics. But it was China’s strict campaign to control industrial emissions around Beijing that has helped clear the capital’s notoriously hazy air.

Challenges in India’s Efforts

Delhi’s cloud-seeding plan is “kind of a Hail Mary”, said Bhargav Krishna, an expert on air quality and health. “It reflects the failure of institutions tasked with regulating air pollution in the first place . . . It seems to be a last resort effort to try something in the absence of anything else working.”

India’s air pollution is an annual hazard caused by a confluence of factors, including industrial emissions, car fumes and smoke from crop-residue burning in nearby states. It was also exacerbated this week by fireworks to celebrate the festival of Diwali on Sunday.

India’s government in 2019 launched a national clean air programme to tackle the problem, and authorities argue that they have had some success in reducing PM2.5 levels in Delhi and elsewhere. But a series of other steps, from so-called smog towers designed to purify nearby air to long-delayed plans to clean power plant emissions, have done little to ease the crisis.

Analysts said that, in contrast to China, India’s efforts have been hobbled by a lack of both political will and state capacity. A study earlier this year by Krishna and then-colleagues at the New Delhi-based Centre for Policy Research think-tank found seven out of eight state pollution control boards — the bodies tasked with regulating air quality — had a vacancy rate for technical staff of at least 40 per cent.

Official inaction is enabled by low public awareness about the dangers of air pollution and the steps needed to address it. Though politicians from Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party and the rival Aam Aadmi party, which governs Delhi, routinely bicker over who is responsible, analysts said air quality had not become an electoral issue, leaving officials with limited incentive to tackle the problem.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Impacted:

1. Goal 3: Good Health and Well-being
2. Goal 7: Affordable and Clean Energy
3. Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
4. Goal 13: Climate Action

SDGs, Targets, and Indicators Analysis

1. Which SDGs are addressed or connected to the issues highlighted in the article?

• SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being
• SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
• SDG 13: Climate Action

The article discusses the issue of air pollution in Delhi, which has significant implications for public health and well-being (SDG 3). It also highlights the need for sustainable cities and communities (SDG 11) by addressing the air pollution crisis in Delhi. Additionally, the article mentions cloud seeding as a potential solution to reduce pollution, which relates to climate action (SDG 13).

2. What specific targets under those SDGs can be identified based on the article’s content?

• SDG 3.9: By 2030, substantially reduce the number of deaths and illnesses from hazardous chemicals and air, water, and soil pollution and contamination.
• SDG 11.6: By 2030, reduce the adverse per capita environmental impact of cities, including by paying special attention to air quality and municipal and other waste management.
• SDG 13.1: Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters in all countries.

The targets identified are directly related to the issues discussed in the article. SDG 3.9 focuses on reducing deaths and illnesses caused by air pollution, which is a major concern in Delhi. SDG 11.6 emphasizes the need to address air quality in cities, including Delhi, to reduce its adverse environmental impact. SDG 13.1 highlights the importance of taking climate action to mitigate the effects of air pollution and other climate-related hazards.

3. Are there any indicators mentioned or implied in the article that can be used to measure progress towards the identified targets?

• Air Quality Index (AQI)
• Levels of deadly pollutants such as PM2.5

The article mentions the Air Quality Index (AQI) as a measure of air quality in Delhi. It also refers to the levels of deadly pollutants, specifically PM2.5, which are small particles that pose a significant health risk. These indicators can be used to measure progress towards reducing air pollution and achieving the identified targets.

4. Table: SDGs, Targets, and Indicators

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Source: ft.com

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