Punjab, particularly Lahore, has been victim of tremendous smog crisis since last month as the thick and toxic clouds are now visible from space through striking satellite imagery. Notably, in addition to Pakistan, the thick smog clouds shrouding northern India are also visible in the satellite imagery shown from Nasa worldview, reported CNN. The cities of Lahore and Multan have been blanketed by the dark haze which engulfed streets and blocked buildings from view. In Nasa’s satellite images, both the cities of Lahore and New Delhi are clearly visible shrouded in thick smog with no green cover. Moreover, according to the Swiss air quality technology company IQAir on Tuesday, Lahore turned out to have the most polluted air in the world.

The Punjab’s provincial capital stood at top in the air quality index (AQI) list as India’s New Delhi and Democratic Republic of Congo’s Kinhasa ranked at second and third places respectively. Additionally, the AQI list labelled the air quality in Lahore as very hazardous. Parallel to this, the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) warned on Tuesday that highly polluted air in Punjab is posing severe risks to people, including more than 11 million children under the age of five. It stated that hundreds of people, including dozens of children, have been hospitalised in hard-hit cities, and the pollution is so severe that it is visible from space.

“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,” Pakistan Unicef representative Abdullah Fadil said in a statement issued in Islamabad. It is also important to note that the pollution has forced authorities in Pakistan to close schools and public spaces because the smog threatens the health of tens of millions of people. Each winter, pollution in this region ramps up with smog blanketing the whole atmosphere due to a combination of farmers burning agricultural waste, coal-fired power plants, traffic and windless days . Officials in Lahore have deemed this season as unprecedented even though major South Asian cities suffer with poisonous smog each year.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan