Sad reason world’s second-largest city has shut all schools
The world’s second-largest city has closed its schools as it faces a dangerous health crisis.
The world’s second largest city has closed its schools due to hazardous smog.
In-person classes had already ceased at primary schools in India’s capital New Delhi last week and as of Monday, the order has been expanded.
“With the imposition of GRAP-4 from tmrw (tomorrow), physical classes shall be discontinued for all students, apart from Class 10 and 12,” Chief Minister Atishi, who uses one name, wrote on X late on Sunday. “All schools will hold online classes, until further orders.”
GRAP-4 refers to stage 4 of the Graded Response Action Plan, which are emergency measures to address air pollution.
Along with schoolchildren staying home, there are restrictions on truck and van traffic in the city.
The New Delhi Air Quality Index (AQI) is at a “hazardous” level.
For example, the World Health Organisation’s recommended daily maximum levels of PM2.5 pollutants is 15 and at time of writing, the levels for New Dehli are almost at 680 at 10.45am local time. That is about 45 times above WHO air quality guidelines.
On Sunday evening, they were recorded at 57 times above what is recommended.
PM2.5 pollutants are dangerous fine particles that can penetrate through the lungs and enter the body through the bloodstream.
The WHO warns: “Exposure to PM2.5 can cause diseases both to our cardiovascular and respiratory system, provoking, for example, stroke, lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease”.
New Delhi’s problem with air pollution
The city is blanketed in acrid smog each year, primarily blamed on stubble burning by farmers in neighbouring regions to clear their fields for ploughing, as well as factories and traffic fumes.
The government has urged children and the elderly, as well as those with lung or heart issues “to stay indoors as much as possible”.
Many in the city cannot afford air filters, nor do they have homes they can effectively seal from the misery of foul-smelling air blamed for thousands of premature deaths.
New Delhi and the surrounding metropolitan area, home to more than 30 million people, consistently tops world rankings for air pollution in winter.
Cooler temperatures and slow-moving winds worsen the situation by trapping deadly pollutants each winter, stretching from mid-October until at least January.
India’s Supreme Court last month ruled that clean air was a fundamental human right, ordering both the central government and state-level authorities to take action.
– with AFP
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