New Delhi: More than five lakh litres of water was sprinkled at 13 pollution hotspots over the past two days to hold down dust, Delhi Fire Services (DFS) informed the press. The officials in the department claimed that the exercise was initiated on Saturday following orders from the Delhi government on checking dust pollution in the city.
The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) had earmarked as many as 13 hotspots in the national capital where water was sprinkled. These hotspots were – Rohini, Dwarka, Okhla Phase II, Punjabi Bagh, Anand Vihar, Vivek Vihar, Wazirpur, Jahangirpuri, RK Puram, Bawana, Narela, Mundka and Mayapuri.
“On Sunday and Saturday, the fire department deployed over 400 personnel and sprinkled more than five lakh litres of water across the identified hotspots to curb pollution,” Chief Fire Officer Atul Garg said.
He said that a total of 20 fire tenders were deployed. Delhi has been grappling with hazardous levels of pollution since late October with the air quality dipping to 'severe' category a few times.
The city saw a marginal improvement in the air quality on Saturday morning due to a slight increase in wind speed. Most of the air quality monitoring stations in Delhi recorded AQI in the “very poor” category on Saturday.
The overall air quality index (AQI) in the national capital read 234 at 4 pm, down from 312 at 4 pm on Friday. An AQI between 201 and 300 is considered “poor,” 301-400 “very poor,” and 401-500 “severe.”
