Rose water to fight pollution? Bengal minister's latest fix

• Agnimitra Paul proposes adding rose water to mist sprays on special occasions to make Kolkata's air 'cleaner, fresher and fragrant'.

• Environmentalist says the city needs action against vehicular emissions, coal-fired cooking and road dust, not cosmetic fixes.

• Proposal follows a series of controversies involving the minister's remarks on pavement dwellers, mosquitoes and police encounters.

Kolkata's battle against air pollution is set to acquire a distinctly floral fragrance. West Bengal municipal affairs and urban development minister Agnimitra Paul has proposed mixing rose water with the water used for mist spraying across the city on special occasions and during festivals — apparently adding a little perfume to a problem that requires considerably more than a cosmetic makeover.

There is also a question over how effective water misting is as a measure against urban air pollution — and how much water it consumes. Spraying can help suppress dust by causing particles to settle, particularly larger particles such as PM10, but its impact is generally local and temporary. It does little to address emissions from vehicles, industrial activity and other sources of fine particulate matter.

Water requirement is another consideration, particularly for a city undertaking repeated spraying across multiple locations. The volume consumed would depend on the number of misting units, their flow rates and how long and how frequently they operate. CPCB guidance on road-dust management recommends using treated wastewater from sewage treatment plants for water sprinkling wherever possible, rather than relying on freshwater supplies.

In a Facebook post in Bengali on Saturday, 7 November, Paul said Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) had been regularly spraying water mist at locations across the city, particularly in areas recording relatively high air quality index (AQI) levels. The exercise, she said, was being undertaken at the state government's direction to reduce airborne dust particles and improve air quality.

Now, the minister wants the initiative to smell a little sweeter as well. 'This will not only help control dust particles in the air but also spread the pleasant fragrance of rose water throughout the surrounding environment... Our goal is to build a cleaner, fresher and fragrant Kolkata. We will continue our efforts to make the city more habitable,' Paul wrote.

She also cited her recent visit to London, where she said she had found AQI readings below 10 in several areas and close to 1 in some locations. Kolkata, by contrast, rarely records readings below 200 for much of the year, she said.

The comparison may have been intended to underline the scale of the challenge. The proposed solution, however, has invited a rather different reaction.

Environmentalist Somendra Mohan Ghosh questioned the idea, arguing that the city needed measures to tackle pollution at its source rather than interventions that merely made the air smell better for a few minutes.

"Spraying rose water might make the air smell pleasant temporarily but would do little to address the underlying pollution problem. Rose water won't fix Kolkata's air. But clean action will. With due respect to the minister, the fragrance will vanish within two minutes. Kolkata's air does not need perfume; it needs cleaning at the source," Ghosh said on Sunday.

He identified ageing petrol and diesel vehicles as major contributors to PM2.5, PM10 and black carbon emissions. He also called for an end to the use of coal-fired cooking stoves at roadside eateries and food stalls, suggesting that vendors be helped to shift to cleaner LPG or electric alternatives.

Ghosh further proposed deploying 100 water cannons across the city to wash roads, flyovers and dust-prone corridors, arguing that this would help settle suspended dust and remove accumulated dust from tree leaves.

Paul's latest proposal comes after a series of episodes that have kept the minister in the news for reasons other than the city's urban infrastructure challenges.

In August, she faced widespread criticism after a video showed her confronting a homeless woman who was heating milk for a child on a pavement. Paul questioned why the woman was living on the footpath and asked her to remove her belongings. She subsequently defended the intervention on grounds of fire safety, but later conceded she could have spoken more softly and handled the situation differently. The episode also triggered a political row over the treatment of pavement dwellers.

In September, she drew another round of criticism over her remarks on the dengue situation, saying a change in government could not stop mosquitoes from biting people. The comments came amid a rise in dengue cases across the state.

More recently, Paul posted a poem titled 'Encounter' after two accused were killed in separate police encounters in a single day. The poem, which called for firm action against crime, was seen in the context of the government's defence of its tough approach to law and order. Opposition parties and rights groups, meanwhile, raised questions about the circumstances surrounding the encounters.

The rose-water proposal now adds another instalment to this increasingly eventful public-relations repertoire. Whether it will do anything meaningful for the city's air quality is another matter.

Meanwhile, Kolkata's pollution readings offer little reason for complacency. On Sunday afternoon, ahead of Kali Puja and Diwali, the city's average AQI stood at 165 (PM2.5), placing it in the 'moderate' category under the Central Pollution Control Board's classification. The reading had touched 232 on 7 November, entering the 'poor' category.