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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Zofeen T Ebrahim in Karachi

‘I was asked to find a volunteer for an air pollution campaign in Lahore – I couldn’t find anyone’

Goodwin United Nations Lahore Pollution Pakistan Ella AdooKissiDebrah India
A series of illuminated screens in a row above a street at night show a sketch of a head and torso
The project features animated screens throughout Lahore’s polluted streets. Photograph: Farooqi Faisal/Courtesy of Dryden Goodwin and Invisible Dust 2024

It is “smog season” in Lahore. Along with cities in the plains of the Punjab province, October is now popularly called the fifth season in Pakistan as the burning of stubble in the fields after the rice harvest takes the already poor air quality to record lows.

On Monday, Lahore took the world lead on several measures of poor air quality. According to Swiss-based IQAir, which partners with the UN and other agencies to measure pollution, the air quality index was 299 – just two points short of hazardous, followed by Delhi scoring 207. An AQI of 151 to 200 is classified as “unhealthy”, 201 to 300 “very unhealthy” and more than 300 as “hazardous”.

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