[Last year, almost 60,000 Pakistanis died from the high level of fine particulate matter in the air, among the highest death tolls in the world from air pollution, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).]
By Sabrina
Toppa
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Last year, almost 60,000
Pakistanis died from the high level of fine particulate
matter in the air.
Photograph: Arif Ali/AFP/Getty Images
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Nadia Faisal, a cleaning woman in Lahore,
remembers the sudden onset of toxic smog that hit Pakistan’s second-largest
city last month. When she returned home, she found her children playing in a
narrow alley, their eyes red and watering. “My kids were asking me ‘What’s
happening?’.”
The hazardous pollutants across Lahore’s
skyline caused residents respiratory difficulties, eye irritation, and cardiac
complications, among other ailments.
Pakistan’s second-largest city, home to more
than 10 million people, is facing elevated levels of air pollution, thanks to
rapid industrialisation, growing vehicular emissions and tree slashing, and
increased crop burning and coal plant emissions from neighbouring India.
“I have never experienced this before. This
was scary,” says 20-year-old college student Salma Khalid. “I had breathing
problems, so I skipped two classes today. I’m staying indoors.”
Last year, almost 60,000 Pakistanis died from
the high level of fine particulate matter in the air, among the highest death
tolls in the world from air pollution, according to the World Health
Organisation (WHO).
Pakistan’s median exposure levels to fine
particulate matter (PM 2.5) – among the most harmful pollutants in the air – is
68 in urban areas, compared to just 12 in UK cities, according to the WHO
(pdf). The WHO sets a standard safe PM 2.5 level at 25 µg/m3. This month,
numbers rose above 100 in Lahore, according to the city’s environment
protection agency (EPA) data.
As South Asia’s most urbanised country,
Pakistan contends with increasing challenges from the increase in motor
vehicles in cities. In the last decade, more than 11m cars appeared on the
roads in Pakistan’s most populous province, representing a growth of almost
30%, according to a report from the Punjab environmental protection department
(EPD). Although the environmental body has recommended the government mandate low-sulphur
diesel and increase higher public transport use, these results have been slow
to materialise.
Stubble burning in neighbouring India has
also been cited as a major culprit behind worsening pollution, but not all
residents are convinced the blame lies across the border: “They’re just blaming
it on India, but they’re not thinking about solutions or precautions they can
take in Pakistan,” says Sanum Finyas, a 26-year-old student in Lahore. The
polluting practice on agricultural land is common in Pakistan’s Punjab,
resulting in plumes of toxic smoke carrying over to the neighbourhoods of
Lahore.
And natural urban barriers to air pollution
have increasingly disappeared. In the past year alone, Lahore cut down more
than 2,200 trees in the city, removing a natural carbon sink able to absorb
some of the large quantities of carbon dioxide and fine particulate matter
released into the air.
Reducing deaths from air pollution is one of
the aims of the sustainable development goals. One of the targets for goal
three, good health and wellbeing, is “substantially reduce the number of deaths
and illnesses from hazardous chemicals and air, water and soil” by 2030.
It is uncertain how Pakistan can achieve
this. For one, there are few ambient air monitors in the city. Earlier last
month when air toxicity levels reached critical levels the only monitoring
machine was more than three hours away in another city, assessing emissions
from a cement factory.
Solutions to address the root causes of air
pollution are slowly appearing. The federal government recently unveiled a
large-scale tree plantation programme, promising to plant more than 100m trees
in Pakistan during the next several years.
The Punjab government has also instituted a
number of emergency measures to mitigate the pollution, such as banning the
burning of agricultural waste and closing steel mill factories. “We sealed
steel mills who have not installed air pollution control devices,” says Punjab
EPA director Waseem Cheema.
The most effective solution may be to cut the
number of cars on the road. “The government is creating awareness to reduce
traffic load,” says Sohail Anwar from the Pakistan Environmentalists
Association. “People should know how much we are contributing in creating
environmental pollution.”
The lack of public transport in Lahore is a
barrier to reducing the number of cars on the road. The Orange Line Metro
project is under construction and has ambitions to dramatically increase public
transport in the city by serving a quarter million passengers per day,
alleviating some of the traffic congestion on the road.
“We must control vehicular pollution,” Cheema
stresses. “This includes from two-stroke [auto] rickshaws and from old vehicles
that need proper tuning and inspection.” To this end, the EPA has imposed more
frequent road checks by teams of a traffic policeman, an official from a
regional transport authority and an environmental inspector. Vehicles failing
basic maintenance requirements are fined or impounded, and in the most extreme
cases, the police may register a case against the owner in the court of the
environmental magistrate.
Without interventions, experts predict that
Pakistan’s air pollution may worsen in the coming years. Increased
motorisation, poor public health warning systems, and unchecked industrial
pollution are exposing larger swathes of the population to health risks.
“People don’t understand the implications, or
that children are the most severely affected,” says Dr Ijaz Ahmad Butt, a
public health physician from Lahore’s Mayo Hospital. “The public needs to be
informed through the media.”
The government relied on the PTV public
broadcaster to disseminate warnings about hazardous smog, instructing residents
to minimise exposure to outdoor air, wear face masks, and keep children inside.
Not all citizens are waiting for the
government to take action. Lawyer Sheraz Zaka filed a petition in the Lahore
high court, saying the EPD had failed to crack down on the commercial
industries most responsible for releasing pollutants: “The EPD is not taking
action against commercial enterprises because they have become influential.
What regulations exist are not properly enforced,” says Zaka. “The
industrialists are polluting the environment and the public is paying the
cost.”
Meanwhile, at Lahore traffic stops where
groups of men sit out in the open, the lack of public messaging about the risks
from prolonged air pollution exposure is apparent. “For the neediest, the
government should provide environmental shelter and face masks,” says
22-year-old Lahore resident Noshien Shaukat. “The most vulnerable members of
society have no information and remain at risk.”