Pakistan escapes ‘suffocating’ record smog season as winter ends

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AFP reported that millions of Pakistanis suffered an unprecedented smog crisis in the winter, which increases the level of air pollution by four months by 20 times, as the AFP reported.

Pakistan is permanently one of the most polluted countries in the world, Lahore is often portrayed as the worst megau for air quality between November and February.

Statistics from the Independent Monitoring Group Akkin have revealed that this winter smog season began in early October and has a permanent exposure to pollution, even in the less affected cities.

Residents of Lahore, who are homes of 14 million people, endured six -month -old PM 2.5 concentration – small harmful particles that can infiltrate the lungs and bloodstream – the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends.

Meanwhile, Karachi and Islamabad suffered 120 days of pollution in a similar throat.

A factory owner in Lahore acknowledged, “The smog is only deteriorating every year,” who wanted to be anonymous after openly criticizing government policies.

He told AFP, “If I was rich, my first decision would be to leave Pakistan for Dubai, to protect its children and to raise it in a smoke -free environment.”

‘Really asthma knee’

Experts say pollution is mainly due to factory and traffic emissions. It is damaged in the winter when the farmers burn the crop pole and cold temperatures, and the slower winds have trapped deadly pollution.

This year, the winter rains, which usually bring relief, did not reach the end of February, as climate change offers Pakistan’s weather samples quickly.

The smog was so thick that it could be seen from space and authorities were forced to close millions of students serving schools in Punjab, the largest province, including its capital, Lahore.

Rasha Rashid, a young climate activist, said that Islamabad is rapidly becoming “another Lahore” and has launched a legal action against the government.

The 21 -year -old, who is asthma, told AFP, “It’s really asthma.” “I can’t go out, even if I have exams. It is affecting not just our physical health but also our mental health.”

In a November IPSOS survey, four out of five Pakistanis said they were affected by smog.

It can cause throat inflammation, surround the eyes and respiratory diseases, while prolonged exposure can trigger stroke, heart disease and lung cancer.

The effects are worse for children who breathe faster and weaken the immune system.

‘Fighting on Smog’

In this smog season, the provincial government of Punjab announced the “war against smog”, which increased the quality of public air quality surveillance devices to 30 and offered subsidized machinery subsidy fares to clean the crop poles and to burn the crop.

It has promised to rapidly enforce the emission regulations on tens of thousands of factories and more than 8,000 brick kilns, which is an important source of black carbon emissions.

But environmental experts and experts say the impact of the action has been and sometimes contradictory, including restrictions on private air quality monitoring equipment, which the government claims to “give misleading results.”

Experts say that anti -SMOG machines, including a tower in Lahore, are closed two months after installation, effectively useless.

On the condition of anonymity, the speaker said, “This is like opening an air conditioner.”

Promise for a clean air

Ahmed Ali Gul, of the University of Management and Technology of Lahore, said efforts that deal with the effects of pollution with Musk Point instead of its source.

“This is like when you have a bathtub and it flows and it is creating a huge mess, do you grab the towel first or do you close the tap first?” He said.

“First, we need to focus on reducing the emission and then we talk about how to protect ourselves from smog.”

The government has blamed rival India, which is connected to Punjab province, to spread pollution in Lahore. But Pakistan has limited the quality of vehicles, and officials have admitted that 83 % of Lahore carbon emissions are from transport.

“Converting to cleaner fuel will produce immediate results, we have seen it in other countries,” said Frank Hams, a global CEO of Switzerland’s AQ Air Quality Project.

He added, but it “sometimes needs a very strong central effort to make painful changes that need to be done to reduce air pollution.”

The government of Pakistan wants to make one -third of the new sales of electric vehicles (EV) by 2030.

According to the World Bank, cheap Chinese models launched in Pakistan in 2024, but currently there is a part of the sales of cars in a country where 40 % of the 240 million population is in poverty.

Pakistan had a clean air taste during epidemic disease, when a lockdown forced the roads and factories to close in March 2020, but it was very young because the economic effect was great for many people to bear.

“The quality of the air has improved so much that we can see the stars of Lahore in Syria,” said Omar Masood, director of the Urban Unit, analyzing pollution data for the government.

Although climate change can make air pollution even worse, Pakistanis IPSOS Director Abdul Sattar Babar explained that some Pakistanis are worried about global warming.

“Most Pakistani economic challenges are overwhelmed by which they face,” he said.

“When you can barely survive, climate problems show that you are not a fundamental concern.”