National Desk, 19th March: A recent survey has proclaimed Begusarai, a Bihar metropolitan area, as the most polluted city globally. The capital city with the worst air quality, according to the research, is Delhi. India had the third worst air quality out of 134 countries in the World Air Quality Report 2023, which was published by the Swiss group IQAir. India’s average annual PM2.5 concentration for the year 2023 was 54.4 micrograms per cubic meter.
Bangladesh (79.9 micrograms per cubic meter) and Pakistan (73.7 micrograms per cubic meter) had the worst air quality. India was ranked ninth out of all the countries in the world in 2022, with an average PM2.5 concentration of 53.3 micrograms per cubic meter.
Begusarai, with an average PM2.5 concentration of 118.9 micrograms per cubic meter, has become the most polluted urban area globally. It’s interesting to note that the city did not appear in the rankings for 2022. In the meantime, PM2.5 concentrations in Delhi increased from 89.1 micrograms/m³ in 2022 to 92.7 micrograms/m· in 2023. Starting in 2018, the nation’s capital has been named the most polluted capital city in the world for four years in a row.
An estimated 1.36 billion people in India are thought to be exposed to PM2.5 concentrations that are higher than the yearly guideline threshold of 5 micrograms per cubic metre, as recommended by the World Health Organization. Moreover, 1.33 billion people, or approximately 96% of India’s population, live in areas with PM2.5 concentrations more than seven times higher than the WHO’s yearly recommendation. Data at the city level also show this tendency; in India, more than 66% of cities record yearly averages higher than 35 micrograms per cubic meter.
A report based on information from more than 30,000 air quality monitoring stations and sensors globally was recently produced by IQAir, a global information and technology firm for air quality. Numerous organizations, including research institutes, governmental agencies, universities, educational facilities, non-governmental organizations, commercial businesses, and citizen scientists, are in charge of running these stations and sensors.
The 2022 World Air Quality Report included information from 7,323 sites in 131 different nations, territories, and regions. This grew to 7,812 locations across 134 nations, regions, and territories in 2023. The study emphasizes the serious effects of air pollution, the leading environmental danger to human health that accounts for one in nine global fatalities.
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