Pollution is reaching record levels in a Pakistani city

The smog starts slowly.

At first, you can’t see it but you can smell it. It smells like something hot. And it gets more intense as the temperature drops.

Then smoke and fog begin to cover you and the city around you. Now you can see it. He walks through the smoke, its thick ceiling hanging high.

If you don’t wear a mask or take it down for a while, you will quickly inhale the bitter air.

Your throat may start to feel itchy and sore. As it gets worse, you start sneezing and coughing. But it’s worse for others: children, the elderly, those with breathing difficulties. Hospitals know that they are expecting an influx of people.

Lahore and its 13 million inhabitants have now been starved for a week; The air quality index has passed the 1,000 mark several times this month – anything above 300 is considered dangerous.

Pakistani officials are scrambling to respond to the crisis – the scale of which is unprecedented even in a city that faces smog at this time every year.

Schools have been closed, workers have been told to stay home and people have been urged to stay indoors – part of the so-called “green lockdown”, which has also seen motorbike rickshaws, heavy vehicles and motorcycle parking banned in hotspots.

By the end of the week, the Lahore High Court had ordered all markets in the Punjab province to close at 20:00 every night, with a complete shutdown on Sundays. Parks and zoos are also closed until November 17.

The problem, according to Nasa scientist Pawan Gupta, is that pollution levels in the city “tend to be high in late November and December”.

“So this starts. The worst days of pollution are probably still ahead of us,” he warned.

The smog that has enveloped Lahore, in Pakistan’s Punjab province, is visible in the sky – as it may be part of the cause.

Satellite images from the US space agency Nasa show both a thick layer of smoke and multiple concentrations of fire in the area between India’s capital, Delhi, and Pakistan’s Lahore.

The same photo, six weeks earlier, shows clear skies and – most importantly – very few fires.

A major cause of smog is the fires caused by farmers burning livers after harvest in Pakistan and India – a quick way to clear their fields for the next crop.

This year, Nasa estimates it will count “between 15,500 and 18,500 fires”, according to Hiren Jethva, senior research scientist at Nasa’s Goddard Space Flight Center and Morgan State University, over several years.

According to the environmental protection authorities in Pakistan, about 30% of Lahore’s smog comes from across the border in India. The Indian government this year imposed double fines on farmers caught burning stubble as it tries to tackle the issue.

But most of Lahore’s air pollution comes from its five million motorcycles and millions of other vehicles. On Friday, the Lahore high court identified the emission of large amounts of smoke as the main cause of the smog, according to the Associated Press of Pakistan.

Then there are factories on the outskirts of the city – such as coal-fired brick kilns – which add more air pollution.

And in the last months of the year, it all combines with the cold air that flows down from Tibet, creating smog that hangs over the city.

It is clear that toxic air makes people sick.

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Air Quality Index (AQI), a value of 50 or less indicates good air quality, while a value above 300 indicates hazardous air quality.

WHO guidelines state that the average concentration of PM2.5 should be less than five.

Abid Omar, founder of Pakistan’s Air Quality Initiative, which collects data from 143 air quality monitors across the country, says readings in Lahore “reached above the index every day in November”.

He says: “Some places in Lahore have exceeded 1,000,000,” adding: “On Thursday we read one of 1,917 on the AQI scale.”

On Tuesday, it was reported that 900 people were admitted to a hospital in Lahore with respiratory problems.

“More and more people are coming with complaints of asthma, sore throat and cough,” said Dr. Irfan Malik, a pulmonologist at one of the major hospitals in Lahore.

He has seen an increase in patients complaining of respiratory infections – “which is particularly worrying because we haven’t seen our first waves of the winter season yet”.

Danger is a constant worry for Lahore resident Sadia Kashif.

“Like every mother, I want to see my children running and playing without fear of getting dirty,” she told the BBC.

“I see my children suffering from coughs and breathing problems these days, and it’s a painful reminder that our air has become extremely toxic.”

But the current “greendown shutdown” has left him unhappy.

“It is easy for the government to close the school instead of taking real steps to deal with this problem,” said Kashif.

For years the authorities have been struggling to find a solution to Lahore’s pollution problem.

The government hopes short-term fixes will bring relief, but says long-term solutions – such as improving public transport – will take time.

Meanwhile, Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz announced this week that she intends to write a letter to her colleagues in Indian Punjab to invite them to join the “climate dialogue”, because it affects both regions. Delhi says it has not heard from Pakistan on the matter.

However, Omar points out that air pollution is not a seasonal problem but an ongoing problem.

“Lahore is more polluted than Delhi with pollution episodes lasting longer and reaching higher peaks,” he notes.

And it’s getting worse, you believe. According to his data analysis, October saw a pollution level of 25% compared to the same period last year.

He says governments on both sides of the border must take immediate action to deal with this issue.

“The road to cleaner air is clear, but current policies from India and Pakistan are not enough to significantly reduce pollution.”

It left him skeptical about change in the near future.

“I tell people, blue sky is an indicator of good governance,” said Omar.