Lahore: The city of Pakistan Lahore was declared the most polluted city in the world with air quality monitors on Wednesday, when the citizens choked sharply begged for officials to take action.
Lahore has air quality rating 348, more than 300 dangerous levels, according to IQAIR, Swiss technology company that operates a watervisual monitoring platform.
“Children experience respiratory diseases …
for God’s sake, look for the solution,” said Muhammad Saeed told AFP.
Air pollution has deteriorated in Pakistan in recent years, as a mixture of low-level diesel smoke, smoke from seasonal plants caught fire, and cooler winter temperatures fused with stagnant smoke clouds.
Lahore, a crowded megacity of more than 11 million people in Punjab province near the border with India, consistently ranked among the worst cities in the world for air pollution.
In the past few years the population has built their own air cleaners and issued lawsuits against government officials in desperate bids to clean the air – but the authorities have slowly acted, blaming the smog in India or claiming these numbers exaggerated.
“We are poor people, they can’t even pay charges of doctors,” said Shopkeeper Ikram Ahmed to AFP.
“We can only beg them to control pollution.
I am not a literate person, but I have read that Lahore has the worst air quality and then comes Delhi India.
If it continues like this, we will die.” “Previously, I used to come (walk) with my children but now I didn’t take them out with me,” said Saeed the Labor.
“There are factories and small industries operating here, shifting them to other places, giving them compensation or giving them modern technology, so we can get rid of this fog.”