Take part in awareness drive on air pollution in June

Just a week before World Environment Day that will be centred on the theme of air pollution this year, the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) has decided to conduct a month-long awareness drive on air pollution in June.
Titled ‘Beat Air Pollution’, the campaign will be executed in collaboration with various schools, colleges, non-government organisations (NGOs) and citizens of the city. “There will be daily activities and drives that will be conducted as part of it,” said Yashpal Yadav, commissioner, MCG.

A meeting to discuss modalities of the campaign was held on Wednesday, in which Yadav issued guidelines and instructions to various MCG officials.

This year, China will host the global World Environment Day celebrations on June 5.

In addition to awareness drives, the ‘Beat Air Pollution’ campaign will also reinforce measures to combat air pollution, such as curbing waste burning, encouraging decentralised segregation and management of waste. “Citizens who alert us to violations and help us take action against violators will be bestowed with special honours at the end of the campaign,” the MCG commissioner said.
The corporation will also be organising workshops on waste segregation and composting for its staff, so that they may set examples for others. “A key source of air pollution in the city is garbage burning, which is triggered by poor management of waste, and we will be focusing on this. Plenty of clean-up drives with citizen volunteers are also being organised for the month of June. We hope that citizens will see themselves as equal stakeholders in the problem,” an MCG spokesperson said, adding that details on specific programmes and activities would be made available in coming days.

About three months ago, a report by IQAir AirVisual, a software company that tracks pollution worldwide, and environmental NGO Greenpeace, found that Gurugram had received highest annual concentration of PM2.5 in the world in 2018, with daily levels averaging out at 135.8 μg/m3, more than 13 times the limit of 10 μg/m3 recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).