KARACHI: Karachi has turned world’s fourth largest air polluted cities as its air quality index has surged to an unhealthy level of 193, showing utter negligence of the federal and Sindh government towards environmental reforms, according to a new investigative report released on Sunday.

PM2.5 concentration, as per IQAir organization report, in Karachi has been recorded 11.8 times higher this month which is above the WHO annual air quality guideline value. This clearly proves that the federal and Sindh governments’ claims of making huge investments for improving the environment and public health in the city are nothing but disinformation and misinformation, says the investigation report made by a senior journalist M Nawaz Khuhro under a fellowship program offered by Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF) in collaboration with Media Matters for Democracy.

The investigation finds that air pollution in Karachi contains solid and liquid particles, and certain gases in the air. The major polluters are transport and industrial emissions followed by burning of garbage, emissions from refrigerators, generators, flying of dust, and stoves used in houses and hotels.

The investigation says all types of forests, including mangroves along Sindh’s coastline, which used to help absorb carbon dioxide and clean air in Karachi, had been hacked to an alarming level. Karachi’s present mangroves forest cover is 50,000 hectares. In the last 50 years, Karachi has lost 10,000 hectares of mangrove forest due to encroachments, commercialization and infrastructure development, which is a loss to the environment of the city.

A Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) report says the important ecosystems in Sindh, such as mangroves, have come under extreme pressure due to sea water encroachment and deforestation. There has been mass depletion of mangrove forests in the area due to illegal logging, irrigation and untreated industrial waste.

The report says only 130,000 hectares of mangroves of the 600,000 hectares that existed at the start of the 20th century are now left. The total land area of Sindh Province is 34.84 million out of which 8% forest cover is forest cover, which is low. According to an international standard, a country should have at least 25 percent of its total land under forest cover to tackle environmental degradation including air pollution. The new annual economic survey of Pakistan released in June 2021 says Pakistan is a forest deficient country as it has 5.01 percent area under its forest cover.

According to WHO, air pollution is one of the biggest environmental threats to human health, alongside climate change. From smog hanging over cities to smoke inside the home, air pollution poses a major threat to health. It causes diseases including heart ailments, strokes, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, cancer and pneumonia. It says seven million people die globally each year due to exposure to ambient and household air pollution.

Air pollution is a complex mixture of solid particles, liquid droplets, as well as gases. It can come from many sources for example: household fuel burning, industrial chimneys, traffic exhausts, power generation, open burning of waste, agricultural practices, desert dust and many other sources.

Different sources can lead to different mixtures of air pollution. For example, an urban city near to the sea can have particulate matter consisting of sea salt, road dust and smoke from diesel engines. In contrast, a rural area near to a forest may have particulate matter consisting of soil, smoke from cookstoves and forest fires.

Air pollutants measured include PM2.5 and PM10 (particles with an aerodynamic diameter of equal or less than 2.5, also called fine, and 10 micrometre respectively), ozone (O3), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), carbon monoxide (CO) and sulfur dioxide (SO2).

Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) can penetrate through the lungs and further enter the body through the bloodstream, affecting all major organs.

Exposure to PM2.5 can cause diseases both to our cardiovascular and respiratory system, provoking, for example stroke, lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

New research has also shown an association between prenatal exposure to high levels of air pollution and developmental delay at age three, as well as psychological and behavioural problems later on, including symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), anxiety and depression.

Air pollution is a threat to health in all countries, but it hits people in low- and middle-income countries the hardest,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

In an interview, Naeem Qureshi, President at National Forum for Environment and Health, said that air pollution is continuously rising in Karachi, mainly due to emissions from transport, followed by industrial emissions and burning of garbage. Transport is creating 70% air pollution in the city.

He said: “The federal and provincial governments have formulated environment policies but they are not being implemented in true spirit as a result, there is no control on pollution in Karachi.” He said that the certification system of vehicles is bogus in the city, which needs to be improved.

There should be effective checking of smoke-emitting vehicles to reduce harmful emissions. Mass transit should be launched in Karachi as early as possible besides launching electrical vehicles, Qureshi added.

In an interview, SM Qaisar Sajjad, Secretary General, Pakistan Medical Association, said: “Karachi has turned world’s fourth largest air polluting city, which is matter of great concern. Air pollution is a slow poison and can even take life in severe conditions.”

Dr Qaiser said that air pollution contributes to asthma, nose elegy, sore throat, and heart diseases. It causes 60 to 70% cases of sore throat and nose elegy in the metropolis of Sindh, while children and elderly people are badly affected by this pollution. The air pollution is also affecting IQ level of children.

He said that the government needed to ensure establishment of proper data system of disease cases, including that of asthma and heart diseases. He said that the transport is major contributor to air pollution followed by industrial emissions and dust and garbage particles in the air.

The PMA president stressed the need to regulate transport and industrial systems, and stop all smoke emitting and dilapidated vehicles which cause air pollution. Only fit vehicles should be allowed to ply Karachi roads while there should be proper checking of industrial emissions in the city besides stopping garbage burning at different areas of the city.

According to a Word Bank report, nearly 80% of the more than 9,000 premature deaths caused every year in Pakistan by high PM2.5 concentrations are in Karachi. The PM emissions from road vehicles are estimated to be from diesel trucks, diesel buses and minibuses, and light-duty diesel vehicles. About one-third, however, appears to be from motorcycles and rickshaws, which almost exclusively have highly polluting two-stroke engines. A major source of PM emissions from industry corresponds to ferrous metal sources (steel mills, foundries, and scrap smelters).