Schools in New Delhi will close from Saturday due to “dangerous” levels of air pollution caused by agricultural fires in northern India, local authorities said today.
Starting tomorrow we will close primary schools [sábado] until the pollution situation improves,” New Delhi’s chief minister Arvind Kejriwal told reporters.
“No child should suffer in any way,” he stressed.
According to the Swiss air quality monitoring company IQAir, the level of fine particles (PM), with a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometers, was the most dangerous, today 25 times higher than the maximum level set by the World Health Organization.
With colder air every winter, a yellowish, toxic haze, fueled by agricultural fires, industrial emissions and road transport, persists in the city of 20 million people.
New Delhi is consistently ranked as one of the most polluted cities in the world.
In 2020, a Lancet study attributed 1.67 million deaths to air pollution in India in 2019, including nearly 17,500 in the capital.
New Delhi authorities regularly announce various plans to reduce pollution, but so far they have had little effect.
Farm fires in Punjab and other states have been banned, but farmers remain indifferent to calls for clean practices.
India’s air quality monitoring agency said on Thursday that agricultural fires were responsible for a third of New Delhi’s air pollution.
Source: DN
