Air Quality in Pakistani Cities

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Smog worsens in Punjab as satellite images reveal unabated stubble burning​

Pakistani officials report that pollution levels have surged to 'hazardous' in many areas, creating a health crisis

News Desk
November 11, 2024

Stubble burning in northern India has significantly worsened air quality in Pakistan’s Punjab province, contributing to a thick layer of smog that has engulfed cities across the region.

Pakistani officials report that pollution levels have surged to “hazardous” in many areas, creating a health crisis for millions of residents.

According to Pakistan’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), approximately 30% of the smog in Punjab, including Lahore, originates from across the border in India.

Satellite imagery from NASA shows thousands of fires in India's Punjab and Haryana states, where farmers burn crop stubble after harvest to clear fields for the next planting season. The satelite imagery showed that the burning of crop stubble had continued in Pakistan as well.

The crop burnings have continued on both sides of the border, with larger numbers observed on the Indian side, despite a ban by the respective governments.

To make matters worse smoke from the Indian side of the border drifts into Pakistan, combining with local emissions and colder air to form dense smog.

The smog has forced Pakistan to implement emergency measures, including closing schools, parks, and public areas in 18 districts, with residents advised to stay indoors.

Punjab’s Health Ministry has reported a surge in respiratory illnesses, with hospitals overwhelmed by cases of asthma, eye irritation, and other pollution-related conditions.

Maryam Aurangzeb, Senior Minister of Punjab, has urged citizens to take extra precautions and wear masks if venturing outdoors.

The government also plans to reach out to Indian officials to open discussions on the annual pollution crisis, calling for “climate diplomacy” to address shared environmental challenges.

As pollution levels continue to rise, both countries are under pressure to develop long-term strategies to curb smog and protect public health.

 

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To combat smog, the issue is not of offering solutions but state capacity and fiscal resources​

While rules and regulations do exist, they are subverted by powerful societal actors, or undermined by state officials themselves.

An unwanted fifth season​

Umair Javed
November 11, 2024

PUNJAB’S unwanted fifth season — smog — is currently in full bloom. Air quality in cities like Lahore, poor throughout the year, is at its toxic worst between October and January, with AQI readings well above 500 on most days.

The government’s response so far hinges on school closures and the enforcement of location-specific lockdowns. While keeping vulnerable groups, like children, away from public spaces filled with poisonous air is understandable, it is unlikely that air quality will be much cleaner at home.

Protest and despair at poor air quality is now a standard ritual during these months. Since at least 2015, when the onset of smog became sharply apparent in October, environmentalists and other experts have deliberated on what can be done to solve the issue. The answers are wide-ranging, and the absence of government ownership of the problem in the first few years didn’t help.

Almost a decade on, we can claim some clarity on the proximate causes of the air quality crisis. We know, thanks to source apportionment studies, that transport and industrial emissions are a major source of the problem, when averaged out through the year.

On account of further work, by Cambridge- and Oxford-based scientists Abdullah Bajwa and Hassan Sheikh, we know that vehicle fleet age, two-stroke engines in motorcycles and rickshaws, along with fuel quality are significant features of the problem.

Air quality is an issue that cannot be privatised beyond the mere use of air purifiers in private spaces.

We also know that crop burning in East Punjab contributes to the spike in smog levels during these current months, partly because of wind direction and the inversion of temperature that keeps particulate matter suspended in the air for longer.

Knowing all what we know now, the set of solutions available to us is also fairly clear. Changes in fuel quality, enforcement of fitness standards to phase out polluting vehicles, stricter regulations on industrial emissions, and the development of mass transit solutions to reduce the number of private vehicles on the road are all steps adopted by cities that grappled with air quality issues during the 20th century. In the present context, we have the additional option of ensuring public transport doesn’t add to the problem, mainly by inducting New Energy Vehicles.

Similarly, given that emissions do not respect the Radcliffe line, fenced or otherwise, cross-border collaboration between the two Punjabs is a categorical necessity. Domestic standards and interventions mentioned earlier will clear up the air, through the year on average, but spikes during October-November require the two countries to cooperate more closely and forge a collective solution.

Like with many other public policy issues in Pakistan, offering a set of solutions is not necessarily the problem. In fact, many of these interventions have been identified by the government itself, including through its own source apportionment studies carried out in the last few years. The challenge for us is one of state capacity and fiscal resources. It is precisely this challenge that makes one far more pessimistic about the short- and medium-term prospects for cleaner air.

State capacity is the ability of public sector institutions to implement whatever rules, regulations, objectives it sets out to achieve. As sociologist Michael Mann put it, this ability itself is of two types of power — despotic, which usually relies on punitive and coercive capacity; and infrastructural, which relies on cooperation, coordination, and behavioural shifts.

The weakness of infrastructural power among Pakistani public sector organisations is fairly clear. Rules and regulations, when they do exist, are subverted by powerful societal actors, or undermined by state officials themselves. When the state attempts to deliver services itself, it runs into significant resource constraints, or falls prey to various forms of inefficiencies.

These weaknesses are both a cause and a consequence of increased privatisation in every domain. People who can afford to opt out of state delivery in domains such as housing, water, health, education, even energy, have done so. The market caters to all such needs, as long as people can pay. With the rich and powerful no longer reliant on the state, there is even less pressure on officials to cater to the needs of those who have no other option.

Air quality, however, is an issue that cannot be privatised beyond the mere use of air purifiers in private spaces. Given the rate at which the AQI index is climbing, even purifiers won’t be able to solve the issue. Sure, the rich will have access to better healthcare and the luxury of not going out unless absolutely necessary, but that doesn’t offer the same type of insulation that an off-grid solar system or generator does against a failing public sector electricity grid.

There is no option, then, but to address the crisis. All the steps mentioned above require not only great fiscal outlay, but also the state to perform at a level of ability and capacity that it has seldom demonstrated in recent years. Will government departments tasked with monitoring vehicle fitness levels step up and increase monitoring?

Will local administrators who carry the responsibility of shutting down polluting industrial units be given the resources and protection to take on powerful interests? Will narrow national security considerations be set aside, and meaningful cross-border collaboration initiated?

Such steps can only take place once there is a level of clarity within the government about the smog issue being a public health crisis bigger than any encountered in the past. And that it requires explicit and dedicated attention over a long period of time to solve. Praying for a change in weather is not a sound strategy; similarly hoping that people forget about it or get used to it won’t save anyone’s lungs. The capacity required to tackle the problem needs to be built by the state, and the time to do it is right now.

The writer teaches sociology at Lums.

X: @umairjav

 

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Toxic smog in Pakistan is so bad you can see it from space​

By Helen Regan and Sophia Saifi, CNN

November 11, 2024

A cyclist rides along a street engulfed in thick smog, in Lahore on November 10, 2024.
Arif Ali/AFP/Getty Images
CNN —

Record-breaking levels of thick, toxic smog that have shrouded eastern Pakistan and northern India since last month can be seen in striking satellite imagery.

A huge cloud of gray smog blankets Pakistan’s Punjab province and stretches out east into India, over the capital New Delhi and beyond, satellite imagery from NASA Worldview shows.

The pollution has forced authorities in Pakistan to close schools and public spaces as the acrid smog threatens the health of tens of millions of people.

Images from the Pakistani cities of Lahore and Multan this weekend show the dark haze engulfing streets and blocking buildings from view.

Pollution in the region ramps up each winter, when an ominous yellow haze blankets the skies due to a combination of farmers burning agricultural waste, coal-fired power plants, traffic and windless days. Air quality worsens in the winter because colder and drier air traps pollution, rather than lifting it away, as warm air does when it rises.

Satellite imagery from NASA Worldview shows heavy smog over Pakistan’s Punjab province and parts of northwest India on November 10, 2024, compared to the same region on August 31, 2024. NASA Worldview/CNN

Though major South Asian cities suffer with poisonous smog each year, officials in Pakistan’s second biggest city Lahore have characterized this season as unprecedented.

On Monday, the city’s air quality index was above 1,200, a level considered “hazardous,”
according to IQAir, which tracks global air quality. A reading above 300 is considered hazardous to a person’s health.

The air quality index in parts of Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province of 127 million people, has exceeded 1,000 multiple times in the past week, according to IQAir.

In the Punjab city of Multan on Monday, the reading for the tiniest and most dangerous pollutant, PM2.5, was more than 110 times higher than safe levels set by the World Health Organization.

When inhaled, PM2.5 travels deep into lung tissue where it can enter the bloodstream. It comes from sources like the combustion of fossil fuels, dust storms and wildfires, and has been linked to asthma, heart and lung disease, cancer, and other respiratory illnesses, as well as cognitive impairment in children.

Hospitals and clinics in Pakistan have become inundated with patients suffering from the effects of pollution, with Punjab health officials saying more than 30,000 people have been treated for respiratory ailments in smog-hit districts, according to the Associated Press.

A vendor carries a basket of radishes across a railway track engulfed in smog in Lahore on November 8, 2024.
Arif Ali/AFP/Getty Images

Patients are treated at a hospital due to poor air quality in Lahore, Pakistan, on November 8, 2024

Traders and customers at a wholesale fruit market engulfed in smog in Lahore on November 8, 2024.
Arif Ali/AFP/Getty Images

Pakistan’s Environmental Protection Agency said Sunday there was “an unprecedented rise in the number of patients with lung and respiratory diseases, allergies, eye and throat irritation” in the districts of Faisalabad, Multan and Gujranwala, where average air quality levels were “alarmingly hazardous.”

Schools and government offices had already been ordered to close until November 17, including in the provincial capital Lahore. On Friday, Punjab authorities shuttered all parks, playgrounds, museums, zoos and historical sites in 18 districts for 10 days.

New restrictions on Monday extended the ban to all outdoor activities including outdoor sports events, exhibitions, festivals, and outdoor dining at restaurants, in four districts including Lahore. Markets, shops and malls are to close by 8 p.m. local time, with exceptions for pharmacies, gas stations and essential food and medical stores, according to the EPA.

The fresh restrictions are designed to keep people at home and avoid unnecessary travel that could put their health at risk, Sajid Bashir, EPA spokesperson told AP.

Of particular concern are children who are among the most vulnerable because their bodies, organs and immune systems are still not fully developed.

The UN children’s agency, UNICEF, warned that more than 11 million children under the age of 5 are exposed to smog in the worst-affected districts.

“As smog continues to persist in Punjab province, I am extremely concerned about the well-being of young children who are forced to breathe polluted, toxic air,” UNICEF’s representative in Pakistan Abdullah Fadil said. “Young children are most affected by air pollution because they have smaller lungs and lack the immunities that come with age.”

Khuram Gondal, Save the Children Pakistan’s country director said as well as disrupting their education, “air pollution and hotter temperatures are leading to life-threatening dangers for children, including difficulty breathing and higher risk of infectious diseases.”

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He urged the government to “urgently address air pollution” and find long-term solutions to the annual problem.

Last week, officials in Punjab drafted a letter to the Indian government to open a dialogue on the issue.

Punjabi Secretary for Environment and Climate Change Raja Jahangir Anwar told CNN there was a need for “climate diplomacy, as a regional and global issue.”

Millions of people die each year from air pollution-related health issues. Air pollution from fossil fuels is killing 5.1 million people worldwide every year, according to a study published in the BMJ in November, 2023. Meanwhile, WHO says 6.7 million people die annually from the combined effects of ambient and household air pollution.

The climate crisis will only make pollution worse as extreme heat becomes more severe and frequent, scientists say. Climate change is altering weather patterns, leading to changes in wind and rainfall, which also affect the dispersion of pollutants.

A report published earlier this year found that the world consumed record amounts of oil, coal and gas last year, pushing planet-heating carbon pollution to a new high.

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/11/11/asia/pakistan-punjab-pollution-satellite-images-climate-intl-hnk/index.html

 

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Punjab govt orders closure of all schools as province tackles hazardous air quality​

Ali Waqar | Imran Gabol
November 12, 2024

Commuters ride along a road engulfed in thick smog in Lahore on Nov 12, 2024. — AFP

The government of Punjab on Tuesday — expanding on its previous order — closed all the educational institutions up to the higher secondary level in the province from tomorrow until the end of the week, shifting them to an online mode, as the province tackles the hazardous smog situation prevalent for the past few weeks.

The recent smog situation was declared a “calamity” in Punjab last month. Schools have been closed in the province’s main divisions — Lahore, Gujranwala, Faisalabad and Multan — until November 17 in a bid to lower children’s exposure to pollution.

Separately, the public has been barred from entering public parks, zoos, playgrounds, and museums until November 17 to reduce public exposure to smog.

 

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Today, air quality across several Pakistani cities remains critically poor, with major centers like Lahore, Karachi, and Islamabad recording high pollution levels. Lahore's air quality has reached "hazardous" levels in recent days, primarily due to seasonal crop burning, industrial emissions, and vehicle pollution. As a result, Lahore is among the most polluted cities globally, with PM2.5 levels far exceeding safe limits, creating significant health concerns for residents, particularly for vulnerable groups like children and the elderly.

The government has implemented some emergency measures, such as restricting vehicle use on certain days and increasing monitoring of industrial emissions. However, long-term solutions are still needed to address these high pollution levels sustainably