‘Trapped inside’: The children suffocating in the smog of Lahore
Al Jazeera
Air pollution has become a major problem in Pakistan and it is children who are paying the price.
Lahore, Pakistan – Fourteen-year-old Fatima has woken up coughing, with a fever, on a Monday morning in early November.
“My throat hurts, and it feels like the smog is coming in through the rooftop,” she says while rubbing her left eye beneath her thick round glasses.
Outside her window, Lahore – Pakistan’s second-largest city and the cultural heart of Punjab – is wrapped in a thick, grey haze which is suffocating its residents through the winter months. While smog has plagued the city in previous years, this year the air quality has become dangerously poor, reaching levels far beyond what is considered safe for human health.
The Air Quality Index (AQI) is a measure of pollution in the air, with higher numbers indicating greater health risks. Levels above 300 are considered dangerous.
“Stuff I could never even imagine, going beyond 2,000 Air Quality Index (AQI). We’re at 2,500 to 2,600,” says Ahmad Rafay Alam, a Pakistani environmental lawyer and activist. “And it’s not only a Lahore-based problem. It’s a Kabul-to-Calcutta problem. A yearlong, regional, public health emergency,” he adds.
Customers of the banks named in lawsuit lose more than $870m over the seven years since Zelle was introduced, the consumer watchdog says.
US says Mohammad Reza Nouri orchestrated the killing of Stephen Troell in 2022 as revenge for Qassem Soleimani.
Shakeup comes as Canadian prime minister is mulling his future as Liberal Party leader after top minister’s resignation.
UN report finds at least 782 civilians killed since May ‘amid regular and intensive shelling’ of the North Darfur city.
Man City manager Pep Guardiola says he will not seek to rebuild his struggling squad in the January transfer window.
Rodrigo Rato found guilty of multiple offences including corruption and money laundering.
EU spokesman says 27-nation bloc, which already buys most US oil and gas exports, open to talks with president-elect.
Ukraine has raised the stakes with its boldest wartime assassination, killing a high-profile general in Moscow.
Move brings total in student loan forgiveness during Joe Biden’s term as president to $180bn, Education Department says.
Governor of Salfit says the settlers had previously entered the village ‘under the protection of the Israeli army’.
Clifford, who denies murdering the wife and daughters of a BBC presenter, has also been charged with raping one of them.