The year’s August has been one of the driest, with rain deficit across the country at about 30 percent from that of a normal year, which is over 50 percent in Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan, a report by the CAQM said on Thursday.
The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM), a statutory body tasked with air quality management in the Delhi-NCR region, said despite less rainfall, the AQI in the month remained between "satisfactory" and "moderate" levels.
"AQI is greatly impacted by the levels of rainfall/precipitation and wind speed. The month of August 2023 has been one of the driest, with a rain deficit of about 30 percent over the normal in the entire country and a significant deficit also in Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan of more than 50 percent over normal," the report said.
"Strong dust storm activities occurred during August 26 and August 28, that also led to transient increase in PM10 concentrations," it said.
"Despite this scenario, the daily average AQI for all 31 days in the month of August remained in 'satisfactory' – 'moderate' air quality categories," it added.
An AQI between zero and 50 is considered good, 51 and 100 satisfactory, 101 and 200 moderate, 201 and 300 poor, 301 and 400 very poor, and 401 and 500 severe.
The report further said that Delhi witnessed the highest number of days (163) with "good" to "moderate" air quality (daily average AQI less than 200) during the January-August period in 2023 as compared to the corresponding period in the last five years (barring the COVID-affected 2020).
"'Good' to 'moderate' air quality days during this period in the previous years were only 116 in 2022, 144 in 2021, 135 in 2019 and 123 in 2018 respectively. This period in 2023 has also witnessed a remarkable reduction in daily average PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations over the last 6 years," the CAQM report said.
The daily average AQI for Delhi during the current year is 174 as against 194 in 2022, 192 in 2021, 147 in 2020, 199 in 2019, 203 in 2018, 203 in 2017 and 236 in 2016 respectively, the report said.
Daily average AQI has dropped to under 200 (between January to August) only from 2021 onwards (except COVID-affected 2020), with the lowest being 174 in 2023.
Favourable meteorological conditions, continual ground level efforts, actions by various stakeholder agencies to reduce air pollution and ongoing monitoring and enforcement actions have helped to improve air quality in 2023, the CAQM report said.
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