Pollution in Karachi

Karachi has turned out to be the world’s fourth largest pollut­ed city as its air quality index has surged to an unhealthy level of 193, showing utter negligence of the federal and Sindh governments to­wards environmental reforms. The investigation finds that air pollu­tion in Karachi contains solid and liquid particles, and certain gases in the air. The major polluters are transport and industrial emissions followed by burning of garbage, emissions from refrigerators, gen­erators, flying of dust, and stoves used in houses and hotels. Accord­ing to international standard, a country should have at least 25 per cent of its total land under forest cover to tackle environmental deg­radation including air pollution.

The new annual economic survey of Pakistan released in June 2021 re­vealed that Pakistan is a forest defi­cient country as it has 5.01 per cent area under its forest cover. Accord­ing to WHO, air pollution is one of the biggest environmental threats to human health, alongside climate change. From smog hanging over cities to smoke inside the home, air pollution poses a major threat to health. It causes diseases including heart ailments, strokes, chronic ob­structive pulmonary diseases, can­cer and pneumonia. Seven million people die globally each year due to exposure to ambient and household air pollution. The government must address this issue and put an end to this crisis before it is too late.

ZAINAB MEHFOOZ

KARACHI