New Delhi: To deal with haze during winters, the Delhi government is mulling over using anti-smog guns to bring down pollution level in the national capital, officials said. 

As per the plan, a trial run of anti-smog gun will be held at east Delhi's Anand Vihar ISBT on December 20. 

Environment Secretary Anil Kumar Singh today apprised Lt Governor Anil Baijal of the trial run of anti-smog gun in a meeting to review the detailed action plan of agencies and stakeholders on measures to combat air pollution. 

Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and Environment Minister Imran Hussain reviewed the trial of the fog cannon to control dust particulate matter at the Delhi Secretariat today. 

The L-G also asked all three municipal commissioners to procure the requisite mechanical sweepers, litter pickers, water sprinklers within a stipulated time. 

How does it work?
The device, which is connected to a water tank and mounted on a vehicle, could be taken across the city to spray water to settle dust and other suspended particles.

Sushant Saini, Managing Director of Cloud Tech, the company which manufactured the Anti-Smog Gun, told media that it can spray water up to a height of 50 metres and the results were positive as the spray acts like rain and settles dust particles and also PM 2.5.
Saini said the device would cost around Rs 20 lakh but added that no decision has been taken on whether the company would sell the device or provide its services to the government.

Previous history in China
The Chinese used a similar “smog cannon in 2015 to fight the problem of smog. However, plans to roll it out on a larger scale have mostly failed in the country.

The Chinese machine’s main advantages are that it consumes less electricity and water, and that it can produce smaller particles than its traditional brethren (down to 10 microns, compared to 30). 

When the size of the nebulized liquid particles equals that of the dust, the company says, the two kinds of substances are mostly likely to combine to form a water drop.

Of course, some of the most troublesome pollution particles are smaller than 10 microns. Two commonly used pollution measurements are of PM10 (particles 10 microns and below) and PM2.5 (2.5 microns and below). 

The machine can’t catch everything, but it’s still effective. In a test two of the machines eliminated the dust from a six-story building’s explosive demolition in about five minutes.

References
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com
www.ndtv.com
https://qz.com/