Mexico City Unveils Plan to Combat Air Pollution

A thick layer of pollution and smog over Mexico City is endangering the health well being of its 20 million inhabitants leading to the government taking drastic action. A popular model that has previously proven useful in countering air pollution to an extent elsewhere may prove to be helpful for Mexico's capital city too.

Keeping cars off the road has been found beneficial for keeping a check on air quality and maintaining it healthy levels. Now that Mexico City wants to introduce this practice to its residents, the metropolitan authorities in the city will implement a no circulation policy starting from April 5 that will keep privately owned vehicles off the streets for one day every week.

The rule will stay in effect until June this year, a time that coincides with the rainy season in the region, when there is an improvement in air quality in general. In addition, the threshold for declaring smog alerts will also be lowered.

#Mexico City orders all cars off the road one day a week to tackle air #pollution https://t.co/xGOx28FPqQ. pic.twitter.com/E3GiE7hAAj

— UCLA IoES (@UCLAIoES) March 31, 2016

Emergency ozone levels were declared in Mexico City about two weeks ago after the city experienced its highest level of air pollution since the 1980s, a fact that raised the red flag among authorities. It is a well known fact that air pollution is hazardous to human life and has many adverse consequences on health.

It should be noted that Mexico City is not absolutely new to the no-circulation law. Variants of the law have been used in the city since the late 1980s, the most notable of which was the selective limitation of cars from plying on the roads according to license plate numbers. For instance, cars that had registration numbers ending in 5 or 6 were not allowed on the roads on Mondays.

However, authorities are persisting on the no-circulation policy at the moment because it means that they are at least taking some proactive steps. Also, many of the loopholes faced previously, during the tenure of such laws, will be effectively addressed and dealt with, so that the model proves to be efficient and successful this time around in fighting air pollution.