Even as the Delhi government experimented with an "anti-smog gun" to control air pollution on Wednesday, the fire services had to be called as the machine soon ran out of the water, while no change in the pollutant level was observed.
Mounted on a diesel truck, the "Anti-Smog Gun" sprays atomised water into the atmosphere to control air pollution. It typically uses 30 to 100 liters of water in a minute.
It aims at settling the dust and the fine particles in a limited radius of 25 to 50 meters with the water spray.
The city government began the trial of the anti-smog gun at 10 a.m. near the Anand Vihar metro station. However, the machine shortly ran out of the water. Two fire tenders had to be rushed and the experiment re-started only after 5.30 p.m.
"The experiment had to stop and only began from 5.30 p.m. onwards after fire tenders arrived to supply water. The machine targeted to control the area under 25 meters radius," Sushant Saini, Managing Director of Cloud Tech, the company which manufactured the Anti-Smog Gun, told IANS
He claimed a drop in the major pollutant PM2.5 and PM10 or the particles with a diameter less than 2.5 and 10 micrometers.
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"PM10 dropped from over 600 units to around 400 units after the machine started from 5.30 pm onwards," claimed Saini.
However, according to the data from Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC), PM2.5 and PM10 saw no considerable change.
As Delhi saw one of the worst air quality on Wednesday, with smog returning, the PM2.5 concentration at Anand Vihar was 412 units at 5 p.m. (before test), which increased to 419 units at 6 p.m. and 426 units at 7 p.m. (both during the experiment).
Meanwhile, the PM10 values also saw no considerable change, as it was 680 units at 5 p.m., 685 units at 6 p.m. and 683 units at 7 p.m.
The international permissible limit for PM2.5 is 25 microgrammes per cubic meters, while the national limit is 60 units.
Meanwhile, Delhi Environment Minister along with DPCC officials visited Anand Vihar at around 10 a.m. to witness the experiment. The Minister later in a statement said that more such experiments will be conducted.
This was, however, not the first experiment. The Delhi government on Monday, December 18, conducted a test of the "Anti-Smog Gun" outside the Delhi Secretariat.
The government did not share the data regarding the pollution levels and particle concentration before and after the experiment.
Even on Wednesday, according to the officials, Delhi government did not take separate readings and relied on the DPCC monitoring stations readings.
The cost of the machine is expected to be around Rs 20 lakh.