Population and Environmental Health Issues in Delhi

This report discusses the major environmental and population health issues in Delhi, including air, water, and noise pollution. It also highlights the challenges and obstacles faced by the city, such as overpopulation and lack of people participation. The report provides examples of policies, plans, and projects implemented by the government to address these issues.

PUBLIC HEALTH

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Contents
INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................................2
Delhi and its environment..................................................................................................................2
Current environmental and population health issues.........................................................................2
Major environment health challenges and obstacles..........................................................................3
Examples of projects, plans and policies...........................................................................................4
CONCLUSION.....................................................................................................................................5
References.............................................................................................................................................5

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INTRODUCTION
India is the emerging economy and consists of megacities like Delhi. In the research it was
found that it is the highest polluted city in the world in fact the most polluted city in India [1].
The population living there are in high risk of many types of health issues which may arise
due to pollution. Asthma and lungs related disease are very common in such type of
environment. This can be understood by the fact that there are many people who are suffering
from environment related health issues. There are various sources of this pollution and are
releasing the gas that is highly dangerous for the health of the population living there. This
report highlights the contemporary population and environmental health issues affecting the
megacity like Delhi. It also provides examples related to current projects, plans and policies
that are implemented for addressing the obstacles and challenges faced by them.
Delhi and its environment
Delhi is one of the oldest cities in India and is the capital of the India having a population of
around 11 million. It is the sixth most populated cities in the world. It is a part of national
capital region with many other big cities. The natural environment of the Delhi is not fit for
living a healthy life. The air in Delhi is having very high content of particulate matter. In
2014, World Health Organisation announced it as the most polluted city in the world [2].
With the increasing concentrate jungles the city authorities in 2008 claimed that its green
cover area raised form 26 square km to 300 square km.
Figure 1Map of Delhi

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The level of economic and social development of the population is very high. Right now it is
having population which comprises of people from every region of the nation. Most of them
have come in search of jobs. Right it is having the total wealth of $450 billion and around 18
billionaires and 23,000 millionaires live in this city [3]. It stands second in terms of wealth
capital of the city. As it is a union territory hence it is centrally governed state. There is a
state government and right now ruled by Aam Aadmi party in the house of 70 electoral seats.
Current environmental and population health issues
There are various kinds of environmental and population issues that are existing in the city.
The major environmental issues that exist in Delhi are related to both air and water. The
presence of very high amount of particulate matter in the air especially the presence of PM 10
and PM 2.5 makes it highly dangerous [4]. The major reason for the so much of pollution is
that there are too many industries and vehicles running inside the city. Recent studies on
environment pollution have depicted that the major reason for the pollution in Delhi is the
amount of construction that is going on in city. Since India is a developing nation having
Delhi and NCR regions developing at much faster rate hence there are huge amount of
constructions that are going on. This pollution has raised many kinds of health related issues
for the people. It is not only increasing the water and air pollution but it has also increased the
noise pollution in the city.
Figure 2: Average PM in air

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The major environmental issue that is present in current Delhi is because of the
overpopulation. It is putting heavy burden on the resources of the city like the water
reservoirs. The city is suffering from the air pollution due to the road and construction dust as
well as industries [5]. Increasing diesel powered engines contributes heavily to the pollution.
It has increased the number of people who are suffering from lungs and other kinds of
diseases. It is estimated that approx. 10000 people die every year in the Delhi because of the
Air pollution in the city. With such a high population it the city, it has become difficult to
avail the high quality resources. It can be seen in terms of the fact that river Yamuna’s water
quality has degraded so much that if a person drinks it then it may cause serious damage to
their internal organs. Even the resources that are present with the government are unable to
fulfil the overextending demands of the city.
Table 1: Sources of Air pollution in Delhi
Major environment health challenges and obstacles
There are series of health challenges that are present in the Delhi city. All needs to be tackled
in a very planned so that the issue does not get bigger. Some of the challenges are as follows:
 Lungs Disease: There are various kinds of lung’s disease that can be noticed in the
people that are inhaling the air in the city. Due to this problem there are huge amount
of lungs patients coming up every year. The problem has got such bigger that it is
leading to loss of lives not even in hundreds rather in thousands [6].
 Skin and eye disease: The amount of pollution that is generated in Delhi is leading to
skin irritation and over exposure to it is causing skin diseases. There are huge amount

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of patients that are coming to the hospitals having the complaints related to skin and
eye irritation. Headache is most in common among the people.
 Smog clouds: This type of clouds which is mainly generated in the winter season is
producing skin and eye irritations. Headaches are most common in these days. It is
also leading to accidents which results in loss of lives [7].Epidemics: Due to the
unclean environment there are many types of diseases that are generated every year.
The disease like malaria and dengue are most common due to the unhealthy and
polluted water bodies.
Figure 3: PM 10 Emission regions in Delhi
The major obstacles in this regards are:
 Overcrowding: Due to the huge amount of population it is difficult to eliminate
vehicles from the roads as well as reduce the industries or the amount of construction
that are going on in the city.
 Lack of people participation: It is seen that there is a lack of people participation in
making the environment clean. This can be seen by the fact that they are continuously
using their private vehicles instead of public vehicles [8]. They are not taking care of
the place where they are living.
 Huge amount of funding: Huge amounts of funds will be required for making the
public transport more strong that will capable of handling the traffic load of the city

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[9]. The construction of metro has somehow limited its impact but for making
changes there will be further more investments that will required.
Figure 4 PM 10 Content in the major cities of the world
Examples of projects, plans and policies
There are many such policies, projects or plans that are being used within the city for
reducing the amount of challenges and obstacles faced by the city. Some of these examples
are:
 Odd even Formula: In order to reduce the traffic from the roads of Delhi, the state
government has launched the plan of Odd Even. It was not very successful but was a
good attempt to reduce the pollution [10].
 Remove diesel powered engine: The National Green Tribunal has banned all the cars
or trucks that are powered by Diesel engines and are more than 10 years old [11]. This
was an effective measure as it is seen that the vehicles that are too old produces huge
amount of particulate matters which are highly harmful for the patients.
 Closing all the drains: The central government has ordered to close all the drains that
were opening in the river Yamuna. This has helped them in limiting the amount of
water pollution in the city [13]. It is also helping in protection against the spread of
epidemics like dengue and malaria.

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 Enhanced parking fees: For discouraging the excessive use of vehicles the MCD and
DDA has enhanced the parking fees by four times [14].
 Ban on trucks: Unless there is some important commodity carried by the trucks all
others are banned from entering into the city [15].
 Ban on civil construction: The authorities of Delhi have made the policy for not using
the construction equipment that is running on diesel powered engines. The graded
action plan has been prepared for it [16].
 More metro and public buses: The government has decided to increase the number of
metros as well as public transport so as to reduce the load from the roads by making
people to use public vehicles.
 Ban on industrial activities as well as waste burning: There is a ban on industrial
activities that are polluting the environment as framed by NGT. There is also a ban on
the burning of waste in open.
CONCLUSION
From the above based report it can be said that Delhi is one of the most polluted city in the
world and has become so because of the various factors present in the environment. The
overpopulation is one of the major factors in this regards. There are water, air and noise
pollution that are causing many kinds of health related issues in the city and are causing death
in huge numbers. There are any challenges and obstacles that are present in the city which is
preventing the people from leading a healthy life. On the other hand both state and central
government and authorities are making policies, plans and running projects for reducing the
pollution.

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References
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[10]. Kaur S, Mehra P. Assessment of heavy metals in summer & winter seasons in River
Yamuna segment flowing through Delhi, India. Journal of Environment and Ecology. 2012
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