Gurugram is world's most polluted city, Delhi tops worst national capitals, finds Greenpeace report on air quality

Gurugram is now the world’s most polluted city, and Delhi remains the most polluted national capital across the world, according to a report published on Tuesday by the NGO Greenpeace. Greenpeace has compiled the data in the IQAir AirVisual 2018 World Air Quality Report and the interactive World’s Most Polluted Cities ranking. It reveals the state of particulate matter (PM2.5) pollution in 2018. [caption id=“attachment_6198441” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] An image of the Delhi-Gurugram region tweeted by Twitter user @TheSanjivKapoor.[/caption] The report features as many as seven Indian cities among the worst 10. These include Gurugram, Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Noida, Bhiwadi, Patna and Lucknow. Delhi takes the 11th spot as the most polluted city, with a PM2.5 concentration of 113.5 micrograms per cubic metre. Gurugram is at the top, with an annual average PM2.5 reading of 135.8 micrograms per cubic metre. Dhaka is ranked the second-most polluted national capital at 97.1 micrograms per cubic metre, and Kabul is at the third position in the national capital rankings with 61.8 micrograms per cubic metre. The data highlights that of the 20 most polluted cities in the world, 18 are in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. However, Beijing, which was once among the most polluted cities in the world, ranked 122nd in the list of most polluted cities in 2018. “But it is still at least five times more polluted than the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) annual safety limits,” the Greenpeace said. The worst faring cities are almost entirely dominated by Asian ones. Of the 3,000 cities included in the Greenpeace survey, 64 percent exceeded the WHO’s annual exposure guideline (10μg/m3) for fine particulate matter, the study found. Each of the surveyed cities in West Asia and Africa exceeded the guideline. Ninety-nine percent of cities in South Asia, 95 percent of cities in South East Asia and 89 percent of cities in East Asia also exceeded this level. The report also highlights the lack of publicly available records on pollution. The extent of air pollution levels in Pakistan has only recently been made publicly accessible through a community-driven network of air quality monitors established across the country. The database “reminds us of the grim health emergency the world faces from air pollution again after the WHO air quality database released last year” the report notes. [caption id=“attachment_6197921” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] The worst faring of the World most polluted cities 2018 report by Greenpeace.[/caption]