Swachh Vayu Sarvekshan 2026

Context

The Swachh Vayu Sarvekshan 2026 has underscored the disparity in efforts by the cities in India to address air pollution and enhance the quality of urban air.

Key Highlights

• Indore and Jabalpur were the next best performers after Lucknow in the million-plus population group, while Odisha excelled in the smaller and medium-sized city category.
• The survey is especially significant as it not only assesses the level of pollution but also what steps the municipality is taking to reduce the biggest contributors to air pollution, such as road dust, construction, vehicles, and industrial pollution.

Swachh Vayu Sarvekshan 2026: Key Rankings

• Category I: Population Above 10 lakh

  • Lucknow won the first place.
  • Indore came at 2nd place.
  • Jabalpur took third place.
  • In this list, Delhi and Mumbai came lower, while Chennai, Jamshedpur, Kota, Kolkata, and Madurai were some of the poor performers in this category.

• Category II: Population Between 3 and 10 Lakh

  • Rourkela bagged the top spot.
  • Firozabad and Guntur shared 2nd position.
  • Amravati clinched third rank.
  • The high performance level of Rourkela is particularly noteworthy in the context of urban environmental governance in Odisha.

• Category III: Population Below 3 Lakh

  • Kalinga Nagar took the first place.
  • Angul took the second place.
  • Talcher took third place.
  • The results of the performance of these Odisha cities show the need for pollution-control measures even in the industrial and fast-urbanising areas of the state.

Key Parameters of the Survey

• Waste Management

  • Scientific collection, transportation, processing, and disposal of municipal waste are important components.
  • Proper waste management can minimize the use of open burning, which is a source of particulate pollution.

• Road Dust Management

  • The use of mechanised sweeping and better roads can minimise the re-suspension of dust particles.
  • Road dust is a major source of PM in many of the Indian cities.

• Construction and Demolition Waste

  • Applying scientific management of construction and demolition waste can mitigate dust and PM emissions.
  • The supervision of the construction site and construction materials transportation in cities should be strengthened.

• Vehicular Pollution

  • Promotion of electric mobility and cleaner public transport can reduce emissions from the transport sector.
  • Improved traffic and transport management will also help to lower vehicular emissions.

• Industrial Pollution

  • Emissions from industries must be continually monitored, and emission limits must be adhered to.
  • Industrial particulate pollution can be decreased with cleaner fuels and better emission-control technologies.

An Important Limitation

• The ranking of the cities in the survey should not be understood as a ranking of the actual ambient air quality of the cities.
• The reduction in PM10 concentration is only given 2.5% weightage in the overall assessment, while implementation of pollution control measures is given greater weightage.
• Thus, a city can be performing well even if its absolute pollution concentration is over the national standard due to the effectiveness of its administrative and pollution-control actions.
• This distinction is relevant in assessing if policy implementation is actually leading to better air quality for citizens.

National Clean Air Programme

• In January 2019, the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) was launched to abate air pollution through a multi-sectoral and coordinated approach.
• It encompasses 130 cities that have been selected for targeted air quality measures.
• The target of this programme has been adjusted to attain the national PM10 standard or a reduction in PM10 levels up to 40% by 2025-26 from the relevant baseline.
• Local sources produce specific air pollution and are dealt with through the application of city-specific clean-air action plans.
• The programme includes the involvement of the Union Government, State Government, urban local government and the pollution control authorities.

Institutional Mechanism

• Pollution-control measures are monitored at the state level by monitoring committees.
• Cities’ performance is assessed by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).
• Field-level verification carried out by independent committees.
• The combined multi-level mechanism tries to reconcile the administrative assessment and technical/indpendent verification.

Significance of Swachh Vayu Sarvekshan

• Encourages Healthy Competition

  • A city ranking scheme can stimulate urban local bodies to take innovative actions to reduce pollution.
  • Rewards and acknowledgments can encourage the environmental behaviour of cities.

• Strengthens Urban Governance

  • Sanitation, transport, infrastructure, industry, and urban planning are all areas where coordination is needed for air pollution.
  • The survey aims to shift the focus from pollution as an environmental problem to a governance one.

• Promotes Best Practices

  • Best practice interventions can be scaled up to other cities.
  • Measures such as mechanised sweeping, electric waste-collection vehicles, scientific waste management and waste-to-energy facilities can provide practical models.

Importance for Odisha

• The performance of the clubs from Rourkela, Kalinga Nagar, Angul and Talcher is of special significance to Odisha as a number of these clubs have high industrial activities.
• Their performance shows that industrial and urban development need not come at the expense of getting better pollution-control measures.
• The outcomes can also be useful for the cause of the broader sustainable urbanisation and environmental management of industries for Odisha.

Key Challenges

• Persistent Particulate Pollution

  • Even after improvement, there are several cities that still record PM10 values greater than those set by the National Standards.
  • A decrease from a high baseline does NOT necessarily mean that air quality has reached a safe level.

• Multiple Pollution Sources

  • There are multiple interrelated sources of urban air pollution.
  • Controlling pollution by controlling only vehicular emissions will not solve the problem if the control of road dust or construction activities and industrial emissions is not properly managed.

• Seasonal Pollution

  • Biomass burning and other seasonal influences, as well as low wind speed and temperature inversions, can lead to high levels of pollution in the winter months.
  • So, short-term gains must be translated into year-round gains.

PM2.5 Monitoring

• PM2.5 needs more attention due to its penetrative capacity into the respiratory system.
• The policy should increasingly be oriented towards the control of both PM10 and PM2.5.
• Implementation Gap
• Action plans can be developed and not be effective on the ground in cities.
• Therefore, there is a need for enhanced monitoring, enforcement, and outcome-based assessment.

Way Ahead

• Change from an activity-based to an outcome-based approach to air-quality management.
• Give more weight to a decrease in real levels of ambient PM10 and PM2.5.
• Improve air quality monitoring systems in urban and industrial areas in real time.
• Link planning for air quality with urban transport, waste management, industrial policy, and land use planning.

Source: The Indian Express

Mains PYQ

Q. Describe the key points of the revised Global Air Quality Guidelines (AQGs) recently released by the World Health Organisation (WHO). How are these different from its last update in 2005? What changes in India’s National Clean Air Programme are required to achieve the revised standards? (2021)

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