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Poor air quality increases the risk of stroke, heart disease, lung cancer, and both chronic and acute respiratory diseases, including asthma. Air pollution kills about eight million people annually, and is the fourth leading risk factor for premature deaths worldwide, costing the global economy about $225 billion in lost labour income in 2013, according to the World Bank. Even greater is the cost of illness, resulting in health costs and loss of productivity due to days off work. The highest cost is the agony of watching our children or parents suffer from diseases such as asthma and the loss of pride associated with living in a dirty city.
To tackle the pollution in our cities, we need to first acknowledge that we have an air quality problem.
However, many cities and countries have successfully addressed this problem. Mexico City made huge improvements by acting on vehicular pollution and Bogota by improving fuel quality. Others succeeded temporarily until investments were made that locked in a development path that did not take into account future pollution. In China’s case, it is the coal power plants that are a major source of air pollution. Therefore, in 2012, the Chinese government sought to remedy this by tightening emissions standards for their coal power plants ahead of many countries, including the EU. Thus, they were able to respond to their energy needs and protect the health of their citizens.
In order to tackle the pollution in our cities, we need to first acknowledge that we have an air quality problem and begin to share data regularly on air quality and emissions sources with citizens. Indeed, the right to a clean environment is already enshrined in our Constitution and confirmed by the Supreme Court.
Secondly, we need to identify the sources of pollution in each of our major cities using a fairly simple test where air is passed through a filter paper and the pollution sources analysed. These results are validated by comparing them with the outcomes of computer models that take into account emission source inventories and meteorological effects. Past analyses suggest that in the case of Karachi, industrial emissions (including from poor quality fuel oil), vehicular emissions, fossil fuel combustion, burning trash, and dust from construction, street cleaning, agricultural residues, and sea salt are important sources.
Third, we need to address as many of these sources as possible. In fact, it’s not that difficult. Just procuring diesel and fuel/furnace oil with lower sulphur content, reducing industrial emissions through use of cleaner technology, covering our construction sites, or putting in place a better waste management system so the burning of trash is avoided can make a huge difference.
Finally, we need to systematically think about future sources of pollution and put in place frameworks to manage these from now. Take the planned increase in coal power plants as an example. Recognising this as a future source of pollution, the federal environment protection agency could introduce new emissions standards for PM2.5 (which do not even exist currently in Pakistan) for coal power plants and adjust other emissions standards, learning from China. This will help to ensure that clean technology is used right from the start in these coal plants, reducing the risk of new plants worsening our air quality. Putting these standards in early will also help to ensure that investors do not have to face additional costs later for retrofitting these plants or even closing them down altogether.
As a concerned Pakistani, who has helped many other cities and countries address this problem, it really pains me to see the path that we are unwittingly following on air quality. We need to wake up. We should be defining our own future, a future where each Pakistani not only has the right to breathe clean air, but can actually do so. We can neither tolerate nor afford anything less, if nothing else for our children and our parents’ sake.
The writer was practice manager for the Environment and Natural Resources Global Practice and the senior-most Pakistani at the World Bank when she retired in October 2016.
Published in Dawn, February 20th, 2017
This story was originally published by Dawn, Pakistan