Lahore, Karachi among world’s ten most polluted cities

LAHORE: Lahore and Karachi, the two largest cities in Pakistan, make it to the list of the ten most polluted cities in the world, as shown by the extreme Air Quality Index (AQI) values, which went up to very unhealthy and unhealthy levels, respectively, on Thursday.

As per the information available on the IQ Air website downloaded on Thursday at 01:05 pm, Lahore, which is in Punjab, got the fourth position with an AQI of 209 (very unhealthy); on the other hand, Karachi, which is the capital of Sindh, got the 10th position with an AQI of 163 (unhealthy).

The leading city in this case is Cairo (Egypt) with an AQI of 402 (hazardous), while Dhaka (Bangladesh) is in the second place with an AQI of 286 (very unhealthy).

Delhi (India) occupied the third position with an AQI rating of 228 (very unhealthy), right behind Lahore (Pakistan,) which had an AQI of 209 (very unhealthy).

Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan) was ranked in fifth position with an AQI of 200 (unhealthy), followed by Tehran (Iran) with an AQI of 183 (unhealthy). Almaty (Kazakhstan) was put in the seventh place with an AQI of 182 (unhealthy) just after Kolkata (India,) which has an AQI of 181 (unhealthy).

Doha (Qatar) is in the 9th position with an AQI of 180 (unhealthy) followed by Karachi (Pakistan) with an AQI of 163 (unhealthy). The AQI of the city that is first ranked (Cairo) is hazardous, that of the cities that are ranked from second to fourth is very unhealthy, and that of the cities that are fifth to sixteenth is unhealthy.