Lahore tops polluted cities in world

LAHORE: Provincial capital gained the title of world most polluted city here on Monday with an Air Quality Index (AQI) of 182.

Data collected from IQAir revealed that after staying at third place in the top ranking of the world’s most polluted cities for the last two days, Lahore on Monday came on top. Delhi, India with an AQI of 182 stood second, Hanoi, Vietnam with an Air Quality Index of 170 stood third, Chengdu, China with an AQI of 158 came fourth and Wuhan, China with an Air Quality IndexI of 157came fifth.

Rest of the top 10 most polluted cities included Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (156 AQI), Shenyang, China (153 AQI), Kathmandu, Nepal (148 AQI), Beijing, China (141 AQI) and Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan (137 AQI) respectively. Official data released by EPD on Monday also showed that the most polluted place in the City was Punjab Civil Secretariat, Islampura and its surroundings where the AQI monitored by the EPA’s mobile van was 186.

The second most polluted locality in the city was China Scheme, Karol Ghati, where the AQI calculated on the basis of PM2.5 was 184. At Town Hall the AQI was 117 and at C2 sector, Block 1, Township, Lahore it was 96.

On the other hand, a senior official of EPD requesting anonymity revealed that there were reports that many polluting units sealed by EPD during the recent anti-smog operations were allegedly de-sealed either by the squads of district administration or with the connivance of the ‘insiders’.

He said the increased AQI in and around China Scheme Karol Ghatti area was due to this reason while the increased AQI at and around Civil Secretariat was the result of improper road washing and cleaning and increased traffic jams.

It is pertinent to mention that Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC) was responsible for washing of all the major roads so that the dust could not be arise but road washing was not being done properly and one can witness heaps of dust lying along the dividers and footpaths of all the major roads every day.

The scribe has sent a question about the ongoing situation to Provincial Secretary EPD but didn’t receive any response till filing of this report.The scribe also called Ali Ejaz (District Officer Environment) to get his point of view but he didn’t attend. Text message was also sent to him but he didn’t reply.