Jakarta and Bangkok could be next!
The air quality in the city of New Delhi, India has just hit an all time high of 500 points (which is some 20 times more than the safe limit) and this has resulted in the Indian government putting the brakes on private cars entering and driving in the city.
This week Monday, the smog levels in the city grew at an alarming rate, making it three times worse than in used to be in Beijing, China.
The level of particulates measuring less than 2.5 microns was over 700 micrograms per cubic metre of air on Monday morning, according to the Air Quality Index (AQI). The World Health Organisation’s safe daily maximum is just 25.
Around the same time last year (October 31st 2018) the Delhi government also stopped all private vehicles from entering the city when the city’s air quality index was at 398 points. A few days later the index was at an alarming high 401 points. Now, exactly a year later the air quality index is at 500 points which is dangerous to the point that all schools will be closed and a solution is needed, long term.
There was an idea mooted to do an ‘even’ and ‘odd’ car number plate to be allowed in the city. One day cars with even number plates can enter and the next day only cars with an odd number plates can enter the city. This idea was tried and it seems that it has not worked at all.
Now the New Delhi government wants a total ban on private cars in the city and this will be announced very soon. It looks like the electric car will be the next best selling product in India.
We are in Malaysia are still far from this situation but our government needs to start looking into this now so as to not have it happen in the future for Klang Valley.
