Invisible Enemy: Pakistan's Toxic Air Kills Thousands Each Year

Pakistan’s second-largest city, Lahore, once known as the "city of gardens", is now notorious for being the most polluted city in the world. Although Pakistan is responsible for less than one percent of global carbon emissions, it is among the top 10 most climate-vulnerable nations.

According to Swedish air-quality monitoring company IQAir, South Asia is the world’s most polluted region, where emissions from vehicle exhaust, factories, the burning of stalks after harvest and home cooking with solid fuels all combine to create air of a dangerously bad quality.

A report by the Global Burden of Disease estimated that exposure to air pollution contributes to the death of millions throughout South Asia each year.

Toxic Air of Pakistan

According to the Breathe Life 2030 website, there are 212,433 annual deaths from air pollution in Pakistan. Lahore, the second-largest city with more than 11 million residents, has pollution levels similar to those in New Delhi.

However, this autumn Lahore overtook the Indian capital, occupying top spot for the most polluted city of the world.

Karachi, Pakistan's largest city that is in Sindh province took second place in the global ranking. Third place was taken by Delhi.

According to the standards set by the US Air Quality Index (AQI), a pollution index consisting of particulate matter (PM) of less than 50 is considered good, 151 to 200 is considered unhealthy, an AQI reading between 201 and 300 is considered very unhealthy and an AQI above 300 is rated extremely hazardous.

Last week, Lahore recorded a rating of 181 and Karachi was at 172. As winter months draw closer, the pollution gets worse and there were times in November 2021 when Lahore's AQI hit a hazardous particulate matter (PM) rating of 487.

According to scientists, in winter months as air carries more moisture it becomes heavier than it is in the summer, causing poisonous particles in the atmosphere to move downwards and this dust - together with increased moisture - turns into smog: smoke mixed with fog.

As a result, a layer of thick smog, which includes large amounts of carbon and other hazardous chemicals, covers the city.

The cities of Peshawar, Faisalabad and many other smaller cities and towns in Pakistan's Punjab and Sindh provinces have repeatedly shown worsening air quality over the years.

Leading Killer in Both Children & Adults

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Pakistan has one of the highest rates of childhood mortality in the world, and respiratory diseases are the leading cause, pneumonia in particular.

Another killer is ischemic heart disease which affects children between the ages of 0 and 5 years. It has been estimated by the WHO report that around 26, 000 children die because of it each year in Pakistan.

Air pollution has been shown to worsen respiratory diseases by damaging the function of pulmonary alveolar macrophages and epithelial cells. Pollution also damages the circulatory and nervous systems.

As a contributor to childhood pneumonia, Pakistan has a significant problem because of indoor air pollution from solid fuel use. In rural societies biomass fuels meet about 86 percent of the total domestic energy requirements, with more than 90 percent of the rural and 50 percent of the urban population depending on wood and other biomass fuels, the WHO says.

Various interventions to reduce indoor air pollution, such as fuel-efficient and low-emission stoves and other cooking technology, are available and have been introduced on a small scale by government, non-governmental organizations and academic institutions.

These new technologies can significantly reduce child mortality in rural settings because small children are usually with their mothers at home when cooking takes place. Hence, they are always breathing in the poisonous fumes at close proximity.

In adults, coronary heart disease and strokes are the most common causes of premature death attributable to outdoor air pollution. Evidence is also emerging of other effects such as diabetes and neurodegenerative conditions.

At the Core of the Crisis

In Lahore and the region’s other main cities, dark clouds of exhaust rise from streets choked with new and old cars, taxis, trucks, buses and motorbikes. There are more than 5 million registered vehicles in Lahore city alone. All these are contributing to the pollution crisis.

Furthermore, each winter, as the monsoon and harvesting grinds to an end, farmers across Pakistan and the bordering regions in northern India, set thousands of acres of farmland on fire. Thick smoke rises into the air and chokes towns and villages. The winds carry this smoke for miles around, causing the air quality to deteriorate.

During crop-burning season, the province declares an emergency and government officials register complaints against farmers engaging in such practices. Authorities then impose fines on the polluting farmers, but such actions are not an effective or sustainable way to deal with the issue.

A number of reports have suggested that in South Asia, policies regarding pollution have not been implemented correctly and there are gaps in recognizing the scale of the issue at the governance level.

Often, Pakistani authorities and the media blame India for its pollution problems, saying that India's crop burning and the winds cause toxic air to blow in the direction of Lahore. The authorities also say that the local AQI numbers are exaggerated and the issue is not so bad.

However, science doesn't lie and the numbers speak for themselves.

Additionally, one of the biggest contributors to the air pollution crisis in Pakistan are thousands of factories and industries located in the cities. Just in Lahore there are hundreds of factories and small industries and many operate using old technology, such as coal burning and a mixture of low-grade diesel fumes.

These factories do not have any "clean" waste disposal practices and thick black fumes are frequently seen rising into the air above the factories.

Every day many of these factories break environmental rules and release dangerous pollutants into the air that civilians breathe.

Furthermore, the waste these factories produce - piles of rubbish - are taken to a tip and set ablaze which causes further air pollution because of cost-cutting and improper waste management and disposal.

At times, when authorities visit factories they try to issue a warning rather than shut down the factory completely because low-wage laborers are paid by the day. The owners of these factories also threaten to use their political connections to bully the authorities and keep their factories running.

Consequently lenient warnings or moderate fines do not put an end to such wrongdoing.

According to Pakistani environmental lawyers, such as Ahmed Rafay Alam, air pollution in Lahore and Karachi is nothing but a failure of the government to implement the right policies and make a real change.

The views expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Sputnik.