Islamabad: Lahore has been ranked on the prime of world air pollution charts with an Air High quality Index (AQI) of greater than 300, in keeping with the Swiss air high quality monitor IQAir, which labelled it as a particularly unhygienic and polluted air prevails in varied cities of Pakistan, native media reported on Wednesday.
Lahore, with an AQI of 353, was ranked within the first spot among the many most polluted cities of the world. Quetta, with an AQI of 517, within the morning remained essentially the most polluted metropolis of Pakistan.
The air high quality was measured as unhealthy in Rahim Yar Khan, Gujranwala and Faisalabad, whereas extraordinarily foggy climate circumstances have been current within the plains of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and southern Punjab, inflicting poor visibility on highways, Pakistan-based ARY Information reported.
A number of sections of motorways have been shut as a consequence of poor visibility.
For some days in 2024, Lahore was coated by smog, a mixture of fog and pollution, attributable to low-grade diesel fumes, smoke from seasonal agricultural burning, as temperatures dropped with cooling air.
Air air pollution ranges in Lahore as soon as rose to over 80 instances the traditional hygienic stage authorized by the World Well being Group (WHO).
Earlier in November, a report said that Pakistan, with a low Human Growth Index (HDI) of 0.544 — rating 168th globally — and a Fifteenth-place rating within the Local weather Danger Index 2026, faces socio-economic and environmental challenges that successive governments have struggled to deal with successfully.
These vulnerabilities are additional exacerbated by more and more heavy rainfall in catchment areas, accelerating siltation in main dams, decreasing water storage capability, and growing flood dangers.
Rising temperatures trigger warmth and water stress, particularly in arid and semi-arid areas, impacting agricultural productiveness.
Concurrently, air air pollution from transport, business, and agriculture causes smog that impacts aviation, reduces visibility, and results in respiratory sicknesses.
Abdul Waheed Bhutto, who has an in depth file of publications on renewable vitality, local weather change mitigation, and sustainable useful resource administration, and has served on quite a few nationwide and worldwide advisory and assessment committees, wrote in The Diplomat.
In a report in The Diplomat, Abdul Waheed Bhutto wrote, “The nation’s restricted forest cowl continues to say no, whereas coastal ecosystems face saline water intrusion within the Indus Delta — damaging mangroves, fisheries, and agriculture. Rising sea ranges and elevated cyclonic exercise additional endanger coastal populations, whereas escalating tensions over water sharing, public well being crises, and climate-induced migration underscore Pakistan’s profound vulnerability.”
The Indus Basin is going through acute stress as a consequence of over-extraction and local weather change, with the Nationwide Aeronautics and House Administration (NASA) rating it because the world’s second-most-overstressed aquifer in 2015, warning that continued groundwater discount might exacerbate regional water scarcity.
Pakistan’s main cities, together with Lahore, Karachi, and Islamabad, proceed to expertise persistent and dangerous smog.
Financial losses attributable to excessive climate occasions additional exacerbate the disaster in Pakistan.