Nadir Godrej, chairman and managing director of Godrej Agrovet and Godrej Industries, on Wednesday addressed one of the most pressing issues facing India: pollution.
According to Godrej, the problem of pollution can be solved by speaking up. He said many cities around the world have already found solutions to this problem.
Speaking on the second day of the Mumbai Climate Week held at the Jio Convention Center in Mumbai, Godrej said there are clear solutions to tackle different types of pollution, including vehicular and construction pollution. He added that there are actually rules in place for building pollution to limit it, which are clearly not being followed.
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Urging citizens to “wake up”, he said there are many stakeholders in Mumbai who can push for a solution to the pollution problem.
Godrej cites examples from Beijing and Los Angeles
Citing the examples of cities like Beijing and Los Angeles, Godrej said that many cities were able to solve the pollution problem almost a decade or 15 years ago. Asked why Delhi and Mumbai are unable to resolve the issue, he said that while the solutions are relatively simple, the problem is the absence of a single clear body to address it.
According to a 2013 report in The New York Times, the Chinese government has waged a war on pollution, continuing a multi-year, $100 billion effort to clean up the air. Chinese authorities have stepped up their crackdown on factories, driven old vehicles off the roads and switched from coal to natural gas.
He further said that many problems require cooperation and that India has solved such problems in the past. Reiterating his stance, Godrej asked people to come forward and push for it, adding that losing so many lives over a problem with such simple solutions is becoming more expensive.
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Who is responsible for solving the pollution crisis?
Nadir Godrej noted that one of the problems in India is the lack of stable local government. He added that while Delhi functions as a state, in cities like Mumbai, governance is primarily handled by the Maharashtra government, which oversees various civic organizations and initiatives.
He asked the Maharashtra government and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation to “take pollution seriously” and come together to tackle it.
Delhi, Mumbai AQI
Godrej’s remark on pollution comes at a time when the country is grappling with an ongoing pollution crisis that is worsening with the onset of winter. According to a Mid-Day report, Mumbai’s average air quality index (AQI) in February was 121 in the moderate category, while January and December were 107 and 117, respectively.
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In Delhi, where the central government is hosting the AI Summit, the AQI was reported at 219 at 9 am, hovering in the “poor” category, despite early morning relief from rain, data from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) showed.
India’s biggest problem is air pollution: Gita Gopinath
Former International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief economist Gita Gopinath said at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January this year that pollution is a bigger threat to the Indian economy than trade tariffs. It further said that it is quietly becoming one of the most serious long-term risks to India’s economic growth.
“Pollution is a challenge in India and its impact on the Indian economy is far more severe than any impact of tariffs imposed so far,” she said.