LAHORE:The provincial capital continued to be enveloped in thick smog as the AQI reached 359 on Thursday posing serious health threat to every living being.
Environmental experts said an AQI between 101 and 200 was considered ‘unhealthy’, particularly for sensitive groups, an AQI between 201 and 300 was said to be ‘poor’, while a reading of 301 to 400 was considered ‘hazardous’, posing serious health risks to every living thing.
The AQI of 359 showed that the concentration of PM2.5 in Lahore was currently 61.9 times the WHO’s annual air quality guideline value. Weather experts said that for the past three days, the layer of smog was being thickened as the wind speed was at its minimum level while no rain occurred during this period.
They said Lahore was suffering through worst smoggy conditions, which may increase in absence of rain. During the last three days, the AQI released by the US Embassy was 352 (Hazardous) on Monday, November 6, 406 (Hazardous) on Tuesday, Nov 7 and 372 (Hazardous) on Wednesday, Nov 8, 2023.
Environmental experts stressed the need of an immediate halt to all kind of ongoing construction activities in both public and private sectors besides increasing use of public transport and discouraging movement of private vehicles. They emphasised on the need of educating the citizens to remain indoors to avoid poisonous effects of smog.
Health experts suggested the citizens to avoid outdoor exercise, close their windows to avoid dirty outdoor air, stay indoors and wear a face mask while going outdoors and run air purifiers.
With the AQI of 359 on Thursday, Lahore remained on top of the world’s most polluted cities. Delhi, India was second with an AQI of 302 and Kolkata, India was third with an AQI of 196. Rest of the top 10 most polluted cities were Dhaka, (184), Karachi (167), Jakarta (162), Chengdu, China (122), Hanoi, Vietnam (122), Kuwait City, Kuwait (118) and Wuhan, China (117).
Sources in EPA revealed that in different meetings, the department has proposed the caretaker Punjab government to slow down or stop the ongoing development projects, which were being executed at four different sides of the city but the government refused on the pretext of cost escalation of these projects.
Sources said the EPA has no exact data pertaining to the industrial and vehicular emissions due to which policymaking was being affected and the government can’t take appropriate steps. They added that for the past two years the EPA has already submitted a project for calculating the exact amount of pollution released by industries and vehicles but it was not approved yet.
Sources said in absence of such critical data the department can’t make future policies or steps to tackle the phenomenon of smog. On the other hand, Met office predicted that scattered rain may hit the City on Friday (today) after which the air quality will improve.