Report reveals 83% of cities face poor air quality, India among the worst

KATHMANDU: A report released on Tuesday reveals that most of the world is plagued by poor air quality, with only 17% of cities worldwide meeting air pollution guidelines.

The analysis, conducted by Switzerland-based air quality monitoring database IQAir, examined data from 40,000 air quality monitoring stations across 138 countries.

It identified Chad, Congo, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and India as having the most polluted air, with India alone accounting for six of the nine most polluted cities.

Byrnihat, an industrial town in northeastern India, was found to have the worst air quality.

Experts caution that the actual levels of air pollution could be much higher, as many regions, especially in Africa, lack adequate monitoring systems.

There is only one air quality monitoring station for every 3.7 million people in Africa.

To address this issue, more air quality monitors are being deployed. This year, the report incorporated data from nearly 9,000 new locations and over a thousand additional monitoring stations as part of efforts to improve air pollution monitoring.

However, air pollution monitoring faced a setback last week when the U.S. State Department announced it would no longer make its air quality data from embassies and consulates available to the public.

Prolonged exposure to polluted air can cause respiratory diseases, Alzheimer’s, and cancer, according to Fatimah Ahamad, chief scientist and air pollution expert at the Sunway Centre for Planetary Health in Malaysia. The World Health Organization estimates that air pollution is responsible for approximately 7 million deaths annually.

Ahamad emphasized the urgent need to reduce air pollution levels. Earlier studies by the WHO revealed that 99% of the global population resides in areas where air quality does not meet recommended standards.

“If there is contaminated water, people can be asked to wait for a while until it’s available, but you can’t tell people to stop breathing when the air is bad,” she said.

Several cities, including Beijing, Seoul, South Korea, and Rybnik in Poland, have made strides in improving air quality by enforcing stricter regulations on vehicle emissions, industrial pollution, and power plant emissions. Additionally, they have promoted the use of cleaner energy and invested in public transportation.

One significant regional effort to tackle severe air pollution was the ASEAN agreement on transboundary haze pollution.

Although progress has been limited, ten countries in Southeast Asia committed to collaborating on monitoring and reducing pollution from large forest fires, which are common during the dry season.

Shweta Narayan, a campaign leader at the Global Climate and Health Alliance, noted that many regions suffering from the worst air pollution are also major sources of planet-heating gases due to the burning of coal, oil, and gas.

By reducing greenhouse gas emissions to slow climate change, she believes air quality can be improved as well.

She concluded, “Air pollution and the climate crisis are two sides of the same coin.”

(agency inputs)