Lahore: Pakistani city Lahore The city was declared the world’s most polluted city by the Air Quality Monitor on Wednesday as residents suffocating in the pungent smog urged authorities to act.
Lahore’s air quality ranking was 348, well above the dangerous level of 300. iqair, the Swiss technology company that operates the AirVisual monitoring platform.
“The children are facing respiratory ailments… for God’s sake, find a solution,” laborer Mohamed Saeed told AFP.
Air pollution in Pakistan has worsened in recent years, as low-grade diesel fumes, seasonal crop smoke burns, and cold winter temperatures accumulate in stagnant clouds of haze.
Lahore, a congested megacity of more than 11 million people in Punjab province near the border with India, consistently ranks among the world’s worst cities for air pollution.
In recent years residents have built their own air purifiers and sued government officials in a desperate bid to clean the air – but officials have been slow to act, smothering the haze over India. Blame or claim that the figures are exaggerated.
“We are poor people, can’t even afford the doctor,” the shopkeeper Ikram Ahmed told AFP.
“We can plead with them only to control pollution. I am not a literate person, but I have read that Lahore has the worst air quality and then comes Delhi of India. If it continues like this, then I will die.”
“Earlier I used to come with my children (for walks), but now I don’t bring them out with me,” said Saeed, a laborer.
“There are factories and small industries running here, either move them elsewhere, compensate them or provide them with modern technology, so that we can get rid of this haze.”
Lahore’s air quality ranking was 348, well above the dangerous level of 300. iqair, the Swiss technology company that operates the AirVisual monitoring platform.
“The children are facing respiratory ailments… for God’s sake, find a solution,” laborer Mohamed Saeed told AFP.
Air pollution in Pakistan has worsened in recent years, as low-grade diesel fumes, seasonal crop smoke burns, and cold winter temperatures accumulate in stagnant clouds of haze.
Lahore, a congested megacity of more than 11 million people in Punjab province near the border with India, consistently ranks among the world’s worst cities for air pollution.
In recent years residents have built their own air purifiers and sued government officials in a desperate bid to clean the air – but officials have been slow to act, smothering the haze over India. Blame or claim that the figures are exaggerated.
“We are poor people, can’t even afford the doctor,” the shopkeeper Ikram Ahmed told AFP.
“We can plead with them only to control pollution. I am not a literate person, but I have read that Lahore has the worst air quality and then comes Delhi of India. If it continues like this, then I will die.”
“Earlier I used to come with my children (for walks), but now I don’t bring them out with me,” said Saeed, a laborer.
“There are factories and small industries running here, either move them elsewhere, compensate them or provide them with modern technology, so that we can get rid of this haze.”
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