(New Delhi) The authorities of New Delhi, suffocated by a mixture of pollution and smoke, announced on Sunday that schools would remain closed for another week.
Every autumn, the Indian capital, already among the most polluted cities on the planet in normal times, lives in almost unbreathable air when the smoke coming from the surrounding countryside where farmers burn the stubble is added to the pollution.
This “smog” is considered responsible for hundreds of thousands of premature deaths each year.
“As pollution levels continue to be very high, primary schools in Delhi will remain closed until November 10,” the Delhi state education minister announced on X, adding that secondary schools could “ choose to take classes by video” if they wished.
The Indian capital, with its population of 30 million inhabitants, was once again the most polluted city in the world on Sunday, according to the firm IQAir, a specialist in pollution measurement.
The level of PM2.5 microparticles, so tiny that they can penetrate the blood, reached on Sunday nearly 40 times the maximum level recommended by the World Health Organization, again according to IQAir.
When the level of pollution becomes too severe, the city also restricts building activities and prohibits the circulation of certain vehicles.
But critics accuse the government of deliberately ignoring agriculture’s share of this pollution, with farmers in neighboring states being a powerful electoral lobby.
India also widely uses coal, which is particularly polluting, as a source of energy, and, far from trying to move away from it, has on the contrary seen its per capita pollution due to coal increase by almost 30% over the past seven years. .
A study published by the medical journal The Lancet in 2020 estimated that pollution in India had caused nearly 1.7 million deaths in the country the previous year, including 17,500 in the capital.
And residents of big cities die on average 12 years earlier due to pollution, according to a report released in August by the University of Chicago Energy Policy Institute.
A Cricket World Cup match is scheduled for Monday in New Delhi between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, but both teams have skipped training in recent days due to health risks posed by smog.