The News
India is taking heat over failures to protect its citizens from record-breaking air pollution levels: The toxic smog shrouding New Delhi this week was so bad that the capital’s chief minister declared a “medical emergency.”
The government appears “powerless” in the face of the public health catastrophe, The New York Times wrote, with citizens complaining that measures such as halting construction work and blocking some vehicle use ignore the economic realities of lower and middle-class citizens who can’t work from home.
Doctors are blaming the government for ignoring data on the pollution’s impact on public health, The Wire India reported: “The situation is going from bad to worse,” one physician said. “Now is the time to ask questions from administrators rather than doctors.”
SIGNALS
Politicians once again paralyzed by smog
A slow and ineffective reaction has become the norm since the city’s air pollution first caught international attention about 10 years ago. Even after India’s Supreme Court declared clean air a fundamental human right last month, state governments played their “annual blame game,” The Guardian wrote, accusing each other of ineffective intervention policies. Delhi-based BBC reporter Vikas Pandey wrote that he feels like he is in “the same dystopian film every year… nothing changes.” Because toxic air pollution usually has longer-term health impacts and primarily impacts the poor, it’s not generally considered a voting issue and has yet to generate massive protests. Usually “politicians just “pass the buck” and wait for the season to get over,” Pandey said.
China’s air pollution improves, South Asia only gets worse
China, once the world’s most polluted country, has cut air pollution and extended life expectancy by several years in the last decade, The Juggernaut, a US-based magazine covering South Asian affairs, wrote. Instead, South Asia has become the global pollution hotspot. “India’s next decade could resemble China’s path (of hyper-growth) from 2007 through 2012,” one expert told the BBC, as the country focuses on infrastructure development and manufacturing. Like China, there is potential to reduce air pollution: A comprehensive strategy implemented in Beijing in 2013 increased public transport use and reduced reliance on cars, created low-emissions zones, and introduced state-of-the-art monitoring systems. But in South Asia, air pollution has not been given the same priority or funding as other health emergencies, The Juggernaut wrote.