India News | Delhi Govt Approves DFS Request to Suspend Water Sprinkling Considering Improved Air Quality
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. The Environment Department has approved a request by the Delhi Fire Services to suspend its water sprinkling drive to control air pollution in the capital considering it has "limited resources" and that the air quality has improved.
New Delhi, Jan 20 (PTI) The Environment Department has approved a request by the Delhi Fire Services to suspend its water sprinkling drive to control air pollution in the capital considering it has "limited resources" and that the air quality has improved.
The fire department had written to the principal environment secretary on January 12, saying it has limited resources which are also to be utilised for Covid care centres.
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"We had received one such request from the Delhi Fire Services. We have told them there is no longer a need to sprinkle water as the air quality has improved," a senior environment official said.
On the direction of Environment Minister Gopal Rai, the Delhi Fire Services had started sprinkling water at 13 identified pollution hotspots from November 18.
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The 13 identified pollution hotspots are Anand Vihar, Ashok Vihar, Bawana, Dwarka, Jahangirpuri, Mundka, Narela, Okhla, Punjabi Bagh, R K Puram, Rohini, Vivek Vihar and Wazirpur.
A fire tender with four firefighters was deployed at each spot to sprinkle water to curb air pollution, fire officials said.
According to the fire department, the fire-fighting units made a total 1,480 trips and sprinkled water over 2,100 kilometers road length, the official said.
"The fire service was pressed into service to supplement the efforts of water sprinkling done by local authorities to effectively control the air pollution. Since then, the department has continuously deployed its fire-fighting units for water sprinkling purposes," the environment department official said citing the letter.
Widespread rains earlier this month had improved the air quality in Delhi. PTI AMP/GVS
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)