Jakarta(AsiaNews/Agencies) – The most polluted cities in the world are inAsia. The metropolitan centres of this continent have pollution levels that are five times higher than those ofParis,LondonandNew York, exceeding by five or six times the maximum level recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).
This data emerged at the 2006 Better Air Quality Conference that closed inYogyakartalast week. Meanwhile, a report by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has predicted that greenhouse gas emissions inAsiawill treble within 25 years.
Big cities are saturated with microscopic dust that embeds itself in the lungs causing respiratory disease and cancer. According to ADB data for 2005, the most polluted city isBeijingwith 142 micrograms of particles of pollution dust per cubic meter, compared toPariswith 22,London24 andNew York27. It was such findings that prompted the International Olympic Committee to warn the Chinese capital that it “risks losing the Games if it doesn’t do something to improve its air quality.”
New Delhiand other big cities ofChinaandIndiaare also more polluted than western cities. Between 30 and 70% of pollution is attributable to motor vehicles, which are projected to increase in number. Leilei Liu, the program manager ofChina's Urban Sustainable Transportation Research Centre, said 99% of the Chinese population does not own a car, while in theUnited Statesthere are 77 cars per 100 people.
The ADB report said the increase in greenhouse gas emissions is largely due to pollution in cities due to traffic and heating. Experts predict that cars inAsiawill double every five years and inChina, they will increase by 15 times by 2030, reaching a total of 190 million cars, with carbon dioxide emissions rising by 3.4 times forChinaand 5.8 times forIndia.
Anumita Roychowdhury, associate director of the Centre for Science and the Environment inIndia, said that action taken in recent years "is only stabilizing the problem.”
Michal Krzyzanowski, WHO expert, estimated that air pollution causes 537,000 premature deaths inAsiaevery year.
Experts believe the situation is the fruit of a development model followed byIndiaandChinathat focuses on the needs of industry without respecting the environment and the public.Tokyo, with 35 million residents, has lower pollution levels than in western cities. EvenBangkokhas seen its – still high – pollution level drop by 50% in a decade, thanks to strict controls on car emissions and heavy fines for the most polluting motorcycles. InSingapore, pollution is “only” as much as the levels in US cities, thanks to heavy taxes on cars, limiting traffic in the central business district and extensive public transportation. But the city has 4.5 million residents, much less than the big cities of other countries.
Pollution inChinaandIndiaaffects neighbouring countries too. Alexis Lau, an expert inHong Kong, estimates that 60 to 70% of the microscopic dust particles found in the city’s air emanate from factories and cities in the Pearl River Delta inChina.
Japanhas complained that soot from Chinese coal power stations is covering its lakes. Coal emissions fromIndiaandChinaare polluting the air inBangladeshespecially in the dry season between November and March. Land-clearing forest fires inIndonesiasend a choking haze acrossSingaporeandMalaysia. Meshkat And Ahmed Chowdhury, deputy secretary inBangladesh's Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, said: "We are being squeezed by the two great polluters [ChinaandIndia]".
