Pakistan’s megacity Lahore experienced record levels of pollution this winter. AFP analysed data from independent air monitoring project AQICN and found that the 2024-2025 season saw air pollution 20 times above safe levels. The season also started a month earlier in October and persisted at higher levels, prompting the provincial government of Punjab to declare "a war on smog".
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00You can't step outside, you can't take the kids anywhere, you can't even open your doors
00:10and windows because then the smoke comes in and it's terrible.
00:33Poor air quality phenomena is a general phenomena, is a mythological condition which prevails
00:38especially in the winters when the temperature inversion takes place.
01:08It has happened in the last three years, but this time it's a lot more than last year.
01:11And the number of patients is also a lot more.
01:21So people have to say that you have to wear a mask.
01:24Apart from wearing a mask, they have to be counseled not to leave the house for no reason.
01:29And the already asthmatic or respiratory diseases increase.
01:54If this seasonal change, these AQIs, this spirit remains, then we will have to face these things.
02:00This is a natural disaster.
02:03We will have to take it that way and we will all have to play our role.
02:07We will have to fight these things together as a nation, as a force.
02:24When you have a bathtub and it's overflowing and it's creating a huge mess,
02:51do you first grab a towel or you first close the tap?
02:55First we need to focus on reducing the emissions and then we talk about how to protect.
03:05I'm not sure anywhere is safe.
03:07It's like a slow horror movie, like it's just constantly creeping up behind you.
03:11No matter where you run, unless people fix this issue,
03:14there are so many people who are never going to get better because of something they can't control.
03:44For more UN videos visit www.un.org