Lahore ranks world’s most polluted major city as Punjab battles poor air quality

LAHORE: Lahore was ranked the world’s most polluted major city on Thursday, with an Air Quality Index (AQI) of 419, as air pollution levels remained high across Punjab ahead of the peak smog season . According to IQAir’s live global ranking for 10am to 11am on Oct 29, Lahore topped the list, followed by Cairo with an AQI of 274 and Delhi with 220. Karachi was ranked eighth, with an AQI of 165. Figure shows the top ranked polluted cities according to IQAir on Thursday morning. — Screengrab via IQAir The Punjab government’s air quality monitoring dashboard also showed hazardous pollution levels in several cities. Kasur topped the provincial list with an AQI of 348, followed by Lahore at 324, Faisalabad at 290, Kot Addu at 269 and Dera Ghazi Khan at 267. Nankana Sahib recorded an AQI of 261, Hafizabad 250, Sahiwal 210, Sheikhupura 205, Jhang 203 and Rajanpur 201.

Multan and Gujranwala both recorded an AQI of 194, while Bhakkar registered 186 and Vehari 181. The readings from the two monitoring platforms differed, reflecting their respective monitoring locations and reporting periods. Punjab government’s air quality monitoring dashboard shows hazardous pollution levels in several cities. — Screengrab via AQI Punjab Both, however, indicated elevated pollution levels in Lahore and other parts of Punjab. As of 1:00pm, Lahore ranked at number 5 on IQAir’s live global ranking with an AQI of 183. At the same time, the Punjab government’s live dashboard showed Khanewal as the most polluted city in the province with an AQI of 212, while Lahore’s index was at 173. As pollution levels remained high, the Punjab government intensified enforcement against sources of emissions, including smoke-emitting vehicles, brick kilns, industrial units, plastic burning and construction dust. The…