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Project detail:
India experiences some of the most severe levels of air pollution in the world. Air quality has deteriorated across much of the country since the 1990s, and today, as many as 97% of the country’s population are exposed to unhealthy levels of ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5). Air pollution has a serious impact on health and economic wellbeing of Indians, especially the poorest, who live or work in severely polluted environments. Over the past two decades, the concentration of PM2.5 increased by 69% on average across India. Globally 14 of the 20 most air polluted cities are in India (WHO, 2018). Damages from deaths and disability caused by PM2.5 pollution in India equal to a GDP loss of 1.36% valued at $36.8 billion1 . While Delhi’s toxic air regularly makes news, the problem is much more wide-spread and India’s entire Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) routinely records the highest levels of air pollution. More than 480 million people (about 40% of India’s population) residing in its seven states and union territories (Bihar, Chandigarh, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal) are exposed to some of the worst air pollution in the world. Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Bihar are also home to India’s largest contiguous population of households with incomes below the poverty line. Only six of 42 low- and middle-income countries with average annual rates of GDP per capita higher than 3 percent1 saw air quality deteriorate as much as India since the 1990s.
Note: please download project document attached to this project for more information.
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