Environmental pollution is becoming a rising concern across the globe. Large manufacturing companies and their CO2 emissions are adversely affecting the environment. With the constantly plummeting conditions, organizations like Anti-Pollution Drive (APD) Foundation are striving to play their vital role in this dire situation. Anti-Pollution Drive Foundation is a nonprofit based in Mangaluru. The NGO was formed by several environmentalists who came together with one motive in mind—to contribute to the global efforts of saving the environment.

Since its inception in 2014, the company has taken on multiple challenges in pursuit to bring a positive change to the environment. It has tapped into one of the long-prevailing issues of solid waste management in India. Anti-Pollution Drive Foundation has, in fact, been building its portfolio by working on more projects of this sort in order to create awareness, and cope up with this growing nuisance in the country. Following are some of the projects that Anti-Pollution Drive Foundation has taken on over the past few years as part of their long-term goal.

Shuddha Gaali

This was an air quality assessment venture by APD. The prime target of this campaign was to reduce the impact of CO2 emissions for which smoke emitting vehicles are the biggest culprit. The project was a massive success where samples from twelve different locations were collected. The results led to the conclusion that Mangaluru was a victim of extremely unhealthy breathing air containing high amounts of lead and other impurities. The campaign resulted in the government having to invest approximately 12M rupees allocated to installing air quality motors to help clean the air they breathe.

Prati Manege Sauchalaya

“Prati Manege Sauchalaya” literally translates to “Toilet for Every Home”. Waste management has been a longstanding matter of concern for India, especially in the rural areas which comprise of millions of people. This campaign was introduced just recently on 12th March 2019 by the APD.  Melanie Rodrigues was the person who introduced this project. She told in an interview that 59% of the over-billion people who defecate in the open, are in India. This emphasized the dire need for toilets in homes. APD aims at building awareness about clean sanitary conditions, especially among the people who don’t have access to toilets at home.

PFT 2.0

Among the most notable projects undertaken by the Anti-Pollution Drive includes the Pulmonary Function Test. It was conducted to find out how air pollution is impacting the outdoor workers of Mangaluru. The research was done in two phases where the first one concluded that respiratory disorders are quite likely to take place in the lungs of people like traffic policemen who are exposed to unhealthy air for the most part of the day. The second phase deduced that around 20% of the auto drivers acquire some sort of lung disorder over time.

In the past five years of operations, Anti-Pollution Drive has been able to create a massive impact in India, and especially in Mangaluru. Their research has offered a solid ground for the government to take measures to improve the breathing air conditions. To learn more about APD, visit https://antipollution.org.