Pune: PMC Conducts Workshop To Train Ward Offices On Air Quality Initiatives

As part of the NCAP (National Clean Air Programme), Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) held an interactive workshop titled 'Towards Cleaner Air in Pune' with the Ward Offices of Zone 1 and Zone 2. The workshop was aimed at deepening the understanding of air quality and its impacts on citizens' health amongst the members of the ward offices so that they are empowered with the knowledge while carrying out actions for the mitigation of air pollution within the respective wards.

Environment Officer Mangesh Dighe explained that the initiative was being carried out under the IEC of NCAP, and while the plan includes sessions with various stakeholders, sensitisation and awareness building within PMC was crucial too. More such workshops are planned in the near future with other zones, as well as educational institutions, affected groups, etc.

Assistant Regional Transport Officer (RTO) Amar Desai gave information on the various initiatives that the RTO carries out to mitigate pollution. "'No PUC, No Petrol' is a recently introduced policy where vehicles without a valid Pollution Under Control (PUC) certificate will be denied fuel at petrol pumps. Vehicles are abandoned on roads, which add to congestion, thus increasing pollution. So PMC ward offices could encourage citizens to adopt and follow the scrappage policy, which will take polluting vehicles off the road," he said.

The participants were SIs, DSIs, Medical Officers, Executive engineers, Garden Superintendent, and Education Officer from Zone 1 and Zone 2 ward offices.

Three organisations of Pune - Parisar, CEE and Prayas Health Group - collaborated to facilitate the workshop. The workshop elaborated on both short- and long-term health impacts of air pollution, the extent of disease burden in India that is attributable to air pollution, and why it is important to maintain air quality within the mandatory limits.

Ranjit Gadgil of Parisar said, "Air quality, including AQI, how a city measures its air quality, different data collected through source apportionment and emission inventories, and trends of air quality in Pune can help to curb the air pollution by understanding the patterns and debunking it."

Kunal Jaiswal from the CEE added, "Ward level interventions that could be taken up on different issues like waste burning, door-to-door collection of waste and dissemination of information related to public health. The participants discussed the actions they felt were necessary to mitigate pollution, the challenges they faced while taking those actions, and the support that was sought to help carry them out. The exercise revealed that public engagement was crucial to bring about any improvement, and the wards would give more consideration to strengthening it."