Tuesday, 1 April 2025
Home Topics Climate Smog in Pakistan megacity ends outdoor play for schoolkids
ClimateEmissionsEnvironmentNews

Smog in Pakistan megacity ends outdoor play for schoolkids

114
A man rides a motorbike with several young children seated in front and behind him on a smog-ridden street.
Schoolchildren in Lahore have been banned from outdoor exercise until January because of hazardous smog levels, officials said (AFP)

Schoolchildren in Pakistan’s second-largest city of Lahore have been banned from outdoor exercise until January because of hazardous smog levels, officials said Friday.

The eastern megacity near the border with India regularly registers among the world’s most polluted cities, this week recording more than 20 times the level deemed safe by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Smog is particularly bad in winter as a result of low-grade fuel from factories and vehicles in the low-lying megacity of 14 million, where denser cold air traps emissions at ground level.

Seasonal crop burn-off by farmers on the outskirts of Lahore is also a major contributing factor.

This week the Environmental Protection Agency of eastern Punjab province said that outdoor school activities in Lahore would end from Monday.

A Punjab School Education Department spokesman told AFP on Friday the ban would last for three months until January 31.

School hours will also be cut in the morning to prevent children travelling when the pollution is most punishing.

Lessons will start no earlier than 8:45 am (0345 GMT), cutting 15 minutes off learning hours for public schools and more than an hour for most private schools.

Breathing the toxic air has catastrophic health consequences, with WHO saying strokes, heart disease, lung cancer and respiratory diseases could be triggered due to prolonged exposure. 

According to UNICEF nearly 600 million children in South Asia are exposed to high levels of air pollution.

Schools in Pakistan’s most populous province of Punjab in particular are increasingly disrupted by extreme heat in the summer and choking smog in the winter.

In an editorial on Friday, Pakistan’s leading English-language newspaper Dawn said measures such as shutting schools were “akin to putting band-aids on gaping wounds”.

“The long-term strategies needed to combat this environmental crisis remain elusive,” it said.

zz-jts/ecl/dhc

© Agence France-Presse

Related Articles

Lilium burnt through huge sums while trying to develop its jet (AFP)

German flying taxi start-up’s rescue deal collapses

A German flying taxi start-up said on Friday it would halt operations...

FILE PHOTO: U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum speaks as he attends a signing ceremony with members of the West Virginia Congressional Delegation at the EPA headquarters in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 18, 2025. REUTERS/Kent Nishimura/File Photo

US energy council chief says power plants to produce 15% more electricity

By Valerie Volcovici WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Interior Secretary and co-chair of...

Cuba has inaugurated a new solar energy park in the capital Havana (AFP)

Cuba opens solar park hoping to stave off blackouts

Cuba on Friday unveiled a new solar energy park in the capital...

FILE PHOTO: Cranes unload imported iron ore from a cargo vessel at a port in Lianyungang, Jiangsu province, China October 27, 2019. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo

Iron ore heads for weekly gain on brightening demand outlook, China stimulus hopes

By Amy Lv and Lewis Jackson BEIJING (Reuters) -Iron ore futures prices...