Fear! Ahead of Diwali, India and Pakistan are plagued by foul air pollution

North India and East Pakistan are stuck in air pollution ahead of Diwali celebrations. The air quality there is 65 times higher than the WHO threshold.

Reporting from CNNWednesday (30/10/2024) from Monday, according to IQAir, which monitors global air quality, has revealed that the city of Delhi is in the ‘very unhealthy’ zone. The number is more than 200.

In the Pakistani city of Lahore, about 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the Indian border, air quality exceeded ‘hazardous’ by 500. This is almost 65 times the World Health Organization guidelines for air healthy and making it the most polluted city in the world at the time of the ranking.

Deteriorating air quality is exacerbated by resident habits and industrial activity. Farmers burn agricultural waste, coal-fired power plants, traffic, and extra windless winter days.

Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, begins on Thursday and lasts for five days. And this celebration usually means people gathering with family, partying and setting off the fire brigade. In fact, firefighters make the air pollution there worse.

Recurrent pollution

Dystopian visions of orange blindness and buildings shrouded in smoke appear every year. The smoke even made national news, raising alarm as doctors warned of the risk of respiratory disease and its impact on life expectancy.

Air pollution in India has been found to be so bad that experts have warned that the smog could claim the lives of hundreds of millions of people over the years.

Citizens and experts have long questioned why India has failed to curb air pollution, as Delhi and its neighbors argue over who is to blame.

Delhi has tried to ban the use and sale of firecrackers ahead of Diwali, but the policy has been difficult to implement.

measures of Indian government

Last week, India’s Supreme Court criticized the state governments of Punjab and Haryana for failing to stop illegal stubble burning, a practice where farmers burn crop waste to clear fields. Local officials say they have reduced their use significantly in recent years.

The Indian government also launched a national clean air program in 2019, which launched a strategy in 24 states and union territories to reduce particulate matter concentrations by 40% by 2026. The measures include cracking down on coal-fired power plants, creating air monitoring systems, and banning biomass burning.

Officials have also started pouring water on the streets and even causing artificial rain to combat air pollution in the Indian capital, although experts say these are temporary solutions and have not the good concentration.

According to government data, several Indian cities have seen air quality improve, but progress has been slow.

(sym/fem)