Hyderabad: A recent study states that the overall pollution concentration in Vijayawada is more than Visakhapatnam.
The study by the Department of Metrology and Oceanography of the Andhra University revealed interesting patterns in the air pollution of Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam.
While pollution is more in March, April and May in Vizag due to the humidity in the pre-monsoon period and sea breeze, it is more from September to December in Vijayawada due to thermal condition and industrial effect.
Autonagar in Vijayawada beats Vizag industrial estate and Benz Circle beats Gnanapuram in Vizag.
The study published in International Journal of Innovative Research in Science Engineering and Technology said the concentration of Suspended Particulate Matter is greater in both stations when compared with other parameters in all seasons.
“In this study we considered the overall pollution concentration is greater in Vijayawada when compared with Visakhapatnam from the time period of 2009 to 2013. The concentrations are observed for the consecutive years. In the study, air pollution concentrations of conventional pollutants like sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, Respirable Suspended Particulate Matter and Total Suspended Particulate Matter at two stations each in two cities,” said K. Sai Lakshmi and V. Lakshamana Rao of SVP Engineering College and AU respectively.
In Vijayawada, the sources of air pollution are major industries like Narla Tata Rao Thermal Power Station and industrial estates like Autonagar covering 340 acres and Kondapalli industrial estate covering 439 acres.
“As for as the meteorological wind directions are concerned, the pollution arising from Kondapalli moves away from the city during the south-west monsoon season. However in Autonagar, the pollution spreads to the city interior so the location of Kondapalli is better than Autonagar.”
As Vijayawada is connected to national highways like NH9, NH5 and NH22 there is heavy truck traffic.
Buses and other vehicles pollute the city.
Benz circle is predominately traffic polluted and Autonagar is industrial pollution area and pollution levels at these two sampling points are verified from 2011 to 2013.
In Visakhapatnam, which is a major industrial city, the fluctuations in temperature is fairly uniform in character except during the dry months when the rise in temperature is higher than during monsoon period.
The study found that in the month of January, the pollution concentration is high in Vijayawada when compared with Visakhapatnam area. From 2009 and 2013 annual pollution concentration is higher in Vijayawada than Vizag.
“At present, Vijayawada has all the negative conditions of a typical urban centre. The canals in summer have nothing but drainage affecting the health of the surrounding population,” said the study. For instance in Visakhapatnam Gnanapuram all the levels of conventional pollutants are around 300 to 400 depending on month levels while that of Benz circle are constant around 350.
Assessment of groundwater in the industrial zones in and around Vijayawada and surroundings of the proposed capital area in Thullur and Mangalgiri reveal that certain heavy metals concentration exceeded the limits of WHO standards for drinking water from the samples collected from bore wells.
Experts say though the metal in concentration is not harmful at present, they are slightly excess in some areas and need to take precautionary measures.
The assessment was done by T. Ravi Shankar and PTSRK Prasada Rao of Acharya Nagarjuna University and P.B. Siddartha College of Vijayawada. They collected 60 samples from industrial areas of Vijayawada.
The samples were collected from Ibrahimpatnam, Morampudi, Autonagar and Kondapally.
‘All the 60 samples were labelled properly and analysed for metal content. The results have shown that traces of metals like cadmium, chromium, ferrous and manganese exceeded the maximum limits of WHO standards for drinking water in several samples collected from bore wells in Vijayawada region,” revealed the study.
