Byrnihat Residents Grapple With Health Issues Caused by Air Pollution: Report
New Delhi: Breathing and respiratory issues, skin rashes, eye irritation: these are just some of the many health concerns that residents of Byrnihat in Meghalaya, bordering Assam, experience, as per a report by Reuters. These illnesses are due to a rise in air pollution due to the several industries that operate in the area, per the report.
Byrnihat shot into the limelight for the wrong reasons this year. On March 11, Swiss air quality technology company IQAIR in its 2024 World Air Quality Report listed Byrnihat in Meghalaya as the world’s most polluted city, with a fine particulate matter concentration of 128.2 microgram per cubic meter (µg/m³), more than 25 times the WHO’s annual guideline level of 5 μg/m3.
Fine particulate matter is a major air pollutant produced by sources including vehicular emissions and burning of fossil fuels such as coal. It is known to cause a suite of diseases and illnesses, including cancers and respiratory problems.
On March 13, Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma reacted to IQAIR listing Byrnihat as the world’s most polluted city. He claimed that as per data from four manual ambient air quality monitoring stations of the Meghalaya State Pollution Control Board located in Byrnihat town, the annual average fine particulate matter concentration for 2024 was 50.1 µg/m³.
However, in this statement by Sangma in the state assembly, he also announced that the Meghalaya government had now closed down seven industries for flouting pollution norms, and called for joint action by both Meghalaya and Assam on the issue of poor air quality in Byrnihat.
Rise in respiratory infection cases
Byrnihat, a small town in Meghalaya’s Ri-Bhoi district that borders Assam, is home to several polluting industries. The Byrnihat Industrial Area (also called the Export Promotion Industrial Park) – half of which lies in Assam, and another half in Meghalaya – contains 34 small, medium and big factories mostly producing coke (a coal-based fuel) and cement, as per the Central Pollution Control Board. In 2018, the Central Pollution Control Board listed the Area as a “Critically Polluted Area” and developed an action plan to address the issues.
According to the Meghalaya State Pollution Control Board (MSPCB), data recorded from an ambient air quality monitoring station established in 2008 in the industrial area found that the level of particulate matter (PM10, particles that are at least 10 mm in diameter) exceeded the National Ambient Air Quality Standards of 2009 and that between 2011 and 2015, Byrnihat including the Industrial Area was declared as a “non-attainment town” by the Central Pollution Control Board.
On March 11 this year, Swiss air quality technology company IQAIR in its 2024 World Air Quality Report listed Byrnihat as the world’s most polluted city, with a fine particulate matter concentration of 128.2 µg/m³ – more than 25 times the WHO’s annual guideline level of 5 μg/m3.
Fine particulate matter is a major air pollutant produced by sources including vehicular emissions and burning of fossil fuels such as coal and is known to cause diseases and illnesses including cancers and respiratory problems.
According to a report by Reuters on March 21, government data shows that the number of respiratory infection cases in the region increased to 3,681 in 2024 from 2,082 in 2022. The report also quotes doctors at the Byrnihat Primary Healthcare Centre saying that a majority of the patients they see daily come in with coughs or other respiratory issues.
According to the report, Byrnihat is now home to about 80 highly polluting industries. The location of the town also exacerbates the impacts of the pollutants that these industries emit. The report quoted experts, including the chairman of Assam's pollution control board, as saying that its “bowl-shaped topography” and being “sandwiched” between the hills of Meghalaya and the plains of Assam gave the pollutants no space to disperse.
Need for ‘joint action’
On March 13, Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma reacted to IQAIR listing Byrnihat as the world’s most polluted city.
Sangma claimed that as per data from four manual ambient air quality monitoring stations of the Meghalaya State Pollution Control Board located in Byrnihat town, the annual average fine particulate matter concentration for 2024 was 50.1 µg/m3.
In this statement in the state assembly on the day, he also claimed that as per the MSPCB’s data from January to the first week of March this year, the overall Air Quality Index (AQI) of Byrnihat was observed to be ‘satisfactory.’
However, he added that the Meghalaya government had now shut down seven industries in the area for flouting pollution norms. He also called for joint action by both Meghalaya and Assam on the issue of poor air quality in Byrnihat, as the town falls on the border of both states.
A blame game has been afoot, with both states blaming the other for the high pollution levels in the area. “In fact, it is to be pointed out that there are 20 Red Category industries in Burnihat, Assam, as compared to five in the Meghalaya side,” Sangma had also commented on March 13 in the State Assembly.
On April 20, an expert at the Delhi-based Centre for Efficient Governance recommended that Assam and Meghalaya governments urgently adopt a Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP)-like framework – as is now in place in the national capital – to combat the worsening air quality crisis, The Assam Tribune reported.
But studies show that it’s not just air pollution that plagues the town. A study in 2024 that monitored levels of heavy metals such as chromium, cadmium and lead in the groundwater of the Industrial area found that it contained levels of these heavy metals that were higher than the permissible limits set by both the World Health Organization and the Bureau of Indian Standards.
The study also suggested that exposure to these metals could result in both carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic health risks to people, especially children.
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