Mumbai’s winter air pollution worsens, beating even Delhi’s poor air quality

News about India’s annual winter pollution crisis is mostly dominated by Delhi’s infamous bouts of smog. But, last week, Mumbai, India’s financial nerve center, which lies on the coast of the Arabian Sea, hit the headlines for its deteriorating air quality, accentuating the country’s widespread pollution problem.

The city saw its overall air quality index (AQI) surpass 300 – a threshold that qualifies the air as “very poor” according to India’s measuring standards – on four consecutive days from Dec 5 to 8.

On certain days, Mumbai’s pollution levels were worse than Delhi’s air quality. The AQI in Mumbai on Friday at 8.30 am was 309, compared with Delhi’s 249.

This year’s winter in Mumbai has been the most polluted in the past four years and the city had no “good” or “satisfactory” air quality days in the last 30 days, according to data from India’s System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (Safar).

While conditions cleared up on Saturday, last week saw hospitals in Mumbai report an increase in patients coming in with respiratory problems.

The poor air quality has been attributed to a lack of incoming sea breeze and unusually low wind speeds that have failed to disperse pollutants from key sources such as vehicles and industries, besides ongoing infrastructure projects and road dust suspension.