ISLAMABAD: Toxic smog covering areas of Pakistan has choked citizens, with Lahore suffering the most. The level of PM2.5, microscopic particles that enter deep in the lungs, had dropped to 159 last week, from more than 1,000 during the pollution spike, as per citizen-driven monitoring initiative PakistanAirQuality. The number is, however, still six times higher than the World Health Organisation's safe limit. Images and videos shown make the city look like the aftermath of an apocalypse. Many said they can't see beyond their outstretched arm.
The country is already ranked third in the world, behind China and India for the number of deaths caused by pollution, with 1,25,000 people killed annually, as per a measure by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. Opposition senator Sherry Rehman said, “I don't want to downplay the risk of militant extremism, but we must understand that our citizens are more vulnerable to diseases in the air than to armed terrorists on the ground.” Causes of the pollution are a combination of vehicle and industrial emissions, construction, seasonal dust, and crop burning. Analysts said the causes and consequences of air pollution are never limited to a single nation state. This is the time for cooperation between India and Pakistan to address the issue.
Former ambassador and deputy executive director of the UN Environment Programme, Shafqat Kakakhel said, “Both countries are now using wood for fuel and there is also bad quality of fuel in vehicles. The situation in India is definitely different because industrialisation in Punjab and Haryana in heavier than it is our side. Their emissions come from the use of coal, we use gas, so basically the scale of pollution is much worse there.”
As smog peaked last week, approximately 1,000 new patients were treated each day for respiratory issues in Punjab's nine public hospitals. To make things worse, as under-resourced medical centres struggle to cope, the country's main issue is lethargy. Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, chief justice of the Lahore High Court said, “It is a matter of emergency but the officials concerned did nothing except taking tea in their offices.” Provincial officials delayed school start times and shut down some of the worst polluting companies, saying they had also ordered a temporary halt to crop burning. Shah however, said it wasn't enough. “Why didn't you issue a red alert on smog since you know it's injurious to the health of pregnant women, elderly people and heart patients especially?” he asked.
