Collective efforts with solution approach is essential for clean air
Ranchi, Jharkhand: Marking the occasion of the 'International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies’, Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) and Centre for Environment and Energy Development (CEED) jointly organised a stakeholder workshop today to raise awareness and facilitate collective actions to care for the air. This year the theme of International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies has been ‘The Air We Share’, therefore the event was aimed to raise awareness on the importance of clean air for health and forge cooperation between stakeholders to promote solutions that improve air quality by sharing actionable knowledge, best practices and scientific solutions in the state.
Air pollution has been seen as one of the biggest challenges of the Anthropocene era, which affects human health and also negatively impacts the climate, economy and the general environment. Therefore International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies is established by a resolution at the United Nations General Assembly in 2019 and is being organised by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) all over the world.
Addressing the conference, Mr Shashi Ranjan (IAS), Municipal Commissioner of Ranchi said that, “The State government has already prioritised reducing air pollution as an important public issue. Citizen involvement is key to generate required momentum to provide hand-holding support to the enforcement agencies in deploying solution oriented measures effectively. We are committed to ensure breathable and clean air in city and have taken various measures to control pollution sources such as sustainable management of construction and demolition waste, ban on open burning of solid fuels, reducing vehicular emissions and better sanitation solutions, etc.””
Placing the need of convergent role of key government agencies, Ramapati Kumar, CEO of CEED said, “Government agencies have taken commendable initiatives to mitigate air pollution, however active involvement of citizens and civil society organisations is greatly required to bring localised and bottom-up solutions. We all need to work in a mission mode to convert the grey sky into a blue sky.” He further added that CEED is committed to provide handholding support to the government agencies in facilitating an informed discussion through usage of data & sciences and creating awareness on clean air.
Speaking on the occasion, Y.K. Das (IFS), Member Secretary, Jharkhand State Pollution Control Board said that, “As per the National Clean Air Program, the Board has already prepared a Clean Air Action Plan for 3 cities (Ranchi, Jamshedpur and Dhanbad). Targeting tier 2 and 3 cities, it is making action plans for 6 more cities namely Ramgarh, Hazaribagh, Chaibasa, Sahibganj, Pakur and Dumka to control the level of air pollution. The JSPCB publicises air quality related data on a regular basis to make people informed and seek their support.”
The conference was also addressed by Jyoti Kumar Singh, Assistant Municipal Commissioner (Ranchi) among other notable people. The technical session witnessed participation of Dr Manish Kumar (CEED), Dr Atri Gangopadhyay (Pulmonologist), Abhijeet Sinha (CMPDI), and Dr Tanushree Bhattacharya (BIT, Mesra), among others. The workshop brought several key recommendations such as identification of pollution hotspots and localised solutions of pilferages, public education strategies on higher pollution days, and creating user friendly apps to address citizen grievances.
The event was attended by key representatives of prominent civil society organisations, academic institutions, doctors, research think-tanks, and citizen groups across the state.