Ahmed Shakoor, 34, a tailor by profession who runs a small roadside shop in Karachi’s commercial hub of Saddar town, suffers from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). During Ramadan, which is the busiest month for tailors ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr celebration, instead
of looking after his shop, he is often visiting the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC)’s Outdoor Patients Department for treatment, which doesn’t allow him to sit and continue sewing.
Health experts say COPD is a disease caused by smoking or inhaling dangerous gas particles, which are common in major cities of Pakistan of which Karachi is the worst hit. Shakoor’s shop is located on a street where massive traffic jams for hours is an everyday fare in the mornings and evenings.
Shakoor of course, is not alone in suffering from the havoc wrecked by air pollution; JPMC’s official data reveals that the hospital registers around 350 new patients suffering from asthma, COPD, lung cancer and other related ailments every day.
A recent study sponsored by World Bank discloses that in Pakistan around 22,000 people die every year due to the diseases caused by air particulate pollution, especially in urban centres.
The two largest cities, Karachi and Lahore, are the worst affected by air pollution. Though, Pakistan Economic Survey states that dust and smoke particulates in the atmosphere of Lahore is “twice the world average” and “five times” higher than the developed world, but Karachi is even worse. World Health Organization estimates that air pollution in both cities is “twenty times higher” than the global muster.
The data goes on to add that some other cities including Islamabad, Peshawar and Quetta are also ranked high on the pollution scale by the international bodies working on environment.
According to traffic police department, the total length of the road network in Karachi city is around 8000km and it has over 3 million registered vehicles on roads and around .05 million vehicles from other cities of Sindh and other provinces visit every day, which adds majorly to air pollution in the city.
The data further reveals that with an average 16,560 vehicles registered every month in the city, the numbers of these vehicles are increasing exponentially every passing day.
A detailed study conducted by the experts of International Union for the Conservation of Nature found that private banks are contributing to the rising air pollution in Karachi thanks to their car leasing policies.
“Everyone is running to the banks because of the leasing offered by them which helps purchase cars relatively easily. Thus, the number of cars has increased alarmingly,” the study said.
Thanks to fraudulent practices and difficulties in the recovery of the loans, most of these banks have stopped or reduced leasing facilities, but there are around 45 banks still offering those services to buy a car.
Cutting of urban forests in the city on a massive scale, especially mangrove forests from the coastline, increase in the number of vehicles, small industrial units near residential areas, burning of solid waste, heavy traffic from Pakistan’s biggest port carrying goods to upcountry and massive use of power generators in the absence of electricity and electronic gadgets are all contributing to heavy air pollution in the city.
The increasing number of vehicles is not only causing air pollution but also jacking up the average temperature.
A recent international convention on vehicular traffic states that a thirty-minute traffic jam of about a hundred vehicles on a roundabout or signal would cause the temperature of a two square kilometre-land to increase by 1 degree Centigrade.
Going by this rule, temperature in the urban areas of Pakistan is rising by 1 percent annually, which is another major reason of climate change.
One can notice a thick layer of smog, dust and smoke hanging above Karachi and even smell gasoline in the air. No matter what the source, Karachiites are breathing pollution in one form or the other.
Nature conservationists believe that increasing population — burdening the already thin resources — and urbanization are a major cause of air pollution.
With decreasing water flows in the river Indus, shrinking agricultural fields, droughts and floods, most of the people take flight from rural areas to urban centres.
The official data reveals that with an estimated 37 percent of its population living in cities, Pakistan is a highly urbanized country in South Asia.
Rapid urbanization has been accompanied by environmental problems such as pollution, waste management, congestion and the destruction of fragile ecosystems. Urban air pollution remains one of the most significant environmental problems facing the cities.
With continued power shutdowns, extortion by political parties, CNG loadshedding and worsening law and order situation in Karachi, a large number of major industrial units of Karachi were shifted either to Punjab or Bangladesh and smaller industrial units have replaced them, which has a higher number than those shifted to other places. These smaller units are causing air pollution, which goes unnoticed.
The ruling PPP government seems to have forgotten the most important E (environment) among the five Es — employment, education, energy, environment and equality, on which the party’s manifesto was based.
It is a sad reflection on a party who’s co-chairman and President Asif Zardari inspired the National Assembly to adopt the Pakistan Environmental Protection Act 1997, the only official regulation to control environmental violation in the country.
The writer is a journalist and IVLP Fellow based in Karachi.
