Punjab’s capital city of Lahore has been declared the most polluted city in the world by a Swiss air quality monitor, as residents choking in acrid smog plead with the government to take action.
Lahore recorded its air quality well above the hazardous level of 300 on Wednesday, ranking at 348 according to IQAir, the Swiss technology company that operates the AirVisual monitoring platform.
Muhammad Saeed a laborer and resident of the city said, “Children are experiencing breathing diseases … for God’s sake, find a solution”.
Air pollution has deteriorated in the country in recent years, as a mixture of smoke from seasonal crop burn-off, low-grade diesel fumes, and colder winter temperatures amalgamate into stagnant clouds of smog.
Lahore, a lively megacity of over 11 million people near the border with India, has been consistently ranking among the worst cities in the world in terms of air quality.
In the last few years, residents have assembled their own air purifiers and taken out lawsuits against government officials in desperate efforts to clean the air, but authorities have not taken any noteworthy measures as they blame the smog either on India or claim that the figures are exaggerated.
Shopkeeper Ikram Ahmed said, “We are poor people, can’t even afford a doctor’s charges”.
He continued, “We can only plead with them to control the pollution. I am not a literate person, but I have read that Lahore has the worst air quality, and then comes India’s Delhi. If it continues like this, we will die.”
Saeed also added, “Before, I used to come [for a walk] with my children, but now I don’t bring them out with me.”
He pleaded, “There are factories and small industries operating here, either shift them somewhere else, give them compensation or provide them with modern technology, so we can get rid of this smog.”
