Impounding polluting vehicles. Tearing down kilns. Banning rickshaws. Closing some barbecue restaurants.
These are some of the measures officials in Pakistan’s largest province, Punjab, have put in place as record-breaking air pollution chokes the region, hospitalizing hundreds and forcing students and workers to stay home.
Lahore, the capital of Punjab and Pakistan’s second-largest city, on Sunday had its worst air quality ever recorded, prompting the government to shut all primary schools this week. In the days since, the city has been cloaked in toxic, eye-irritating smog. On Thursday, Lahore had the worst air quality of any city in the world, according to IQAir, a Swiss air quality monitoring company.
“The air feels thick, and it’s exhausting just to breathe,” Safdar Masih, 42, a gardener in Lahore, said on Thursday. Even with windows and doors shut, the smog had seeped into homes, he said.
On Wednesday, the authorities announced new public health measures, expanding the school closures to include all secondary schools until Nov. 17, and advising residents to wear masks in public spaces. The directives will affect more than 70 million people in the province. In Lahore, home to 13 million people, the authorities have ordered half of all workers to stay at home.
“This is a critical situation,” Marriyum Aurangzeb, a senior minister in Punjab Province, said at a news conference on Wednesday. She warned that the poor air quality could linger for another 10 days.
Lahore regularly tops the list of the world’s most polluted cities, according to IQAir, which last year ranked Pakistan among the four countries with the worst air quality. The World Bank has said that air pollution shortens the average life expectancy of Pakistanis by 4.3 years and leads to losses equivalent to about 6.5 percent of the economy.
On Sunday morning, the city’s Air Quality Index surpassed 1,000 for the first time since IQAir began keeping records. Anything above 301 on the index is considered a hazardous situation that can cause severe eye and throat irritation and serious heart and lung conditions. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency considers anything beyond 500 as off the charts.
On Wednesday morning, Lahore had a reading of 1,165.
Most years, crop burning by farmers in northern India and Pakistan contributes to a sharp deterioration in air quality in October and November, according to NASA. Vehicle emissions, industrial activity and the lighting of cooking fires are also factors. Still, the levels of pollution this year have alarmed officials and residents, with medical experts raising concerns about the lasting damage of prolonged smog exposure.
More than 900 people were admitted to hospitals on Tuesday with respiratory problems in Punjab, Ms. Aurangzeb said, adding, “If you don’t want to become one of them, for God’s sake, stay at home.”
Syeda Fatima, a nurse at Jinnah Hospital, a major public health center in Lahore, said children every day were “arriving with severe respiratory problems.”
“Their lungs are still developing, and this air could cause lifelong health issues,” she said.
Northern India is also experiencing high levels of air pollution. New Delhi, the Indian capital, had the second highest air pollution among among world cities on Thursday, according to IQAir.
In Pakistan, the authorities in Punjab have also targeted industries they believe contribute to the smog, banning the use of outdoor barbecues that use wood or charcoal, and ordering motorized rickshaws off the roads.
The police in Punjab announced on Tuesday that they had impounded 521 vehicles for excessively polluting the air. And Punjab’s Environment Protection Department said on Wednesday that 12 kilns used for making bricks were torn down as part of its anti-smog measures.
“Smog has made our lives miserable,” said Muhammad Kafil, a rickshaw driver who earns the equivalent of $4 a day. “Children and the elderly at home are sick, struggling to breathe, and now the government has imposed fines on rickshaw drivers, as if we are the only cause of the smog. In these conditions, what is a poor man supposed to do?”
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