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Pakistani's want pollution solution; New Delhi closes schools, Smog welcomes Taj Mahal tourists
by AFP Staff Writers
Lahore, Pakistan (AFP) Nov 17, 2021

India welcomes back tourists but smog shrouds Taj Mahal
Agra, India (AFP) Nov 16, 2021 - Foreign tourists have been welcomed back to India after pandemic travel bans but intrepid travellers will have to brave the intense pollution season to visit the country's most famous attraction.

Around the palatial gardens of the Taj Mahal, air quality deteriorates each winter, enveloping the white marble mausoleum in a thick coat of hazardous smog.

The problem is replicated across whole swathes of northern India, where seasonal farm fires combine with vehicle exhaust and factory emissions to blanket entire cities in a yellow-grey haze.

But the few hundred people who ventured to the monument on Tuesday -- down from the 20,000 visiting each day before the pandemic -- were undaunted.

"We all know that India can be a little bit polluted and the air quality (isn't) the best," said 33-year-old Lachlan Mazzer, an Australian taking time out at the end of a business trip to visit the Taj Mahal before his return home.

"But I never even considered the pollution as a reason not to come."

Recent days have been among the worst for smog this season, with concentrations of the most hazardous PM2.5 particles reaching nearly 160 micrograms per cubic metre on Monday, government figures showed.

The figure is more than 10 times over the maximum daily limit recommended by the World Health Organization.

"Two days ago, the pollution was so bad that I couldn't make out the Taj Mahal from 10 metres away," Shaman, one of the building's custodians, told AFP.

By the light of dawn on Tuesday, the World Heritage-listed monument was more visible through the haze, to the delight of Indian visitors who have been forced to endure the choking winters elsewhere.

"Pollution is everywhere, I feel," said Shweta Gupta, who visited the monument from her home in the capital New Delhi.

"When you are in small [Indian] cities, the pollution is more there."

- 'Still suffering a lot' -

The Taj Mahal is an enduring symbol of eternal love and India's main tourist attraction, built in the 17th century by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan to honour the memory of his favourite wife.

But it was closed for long stretches from March 2020 after successive waves of Covid infections brought the country's public health system close to collapse and prompted drastic lockdowns.

Strict sanitary measures remain in place at the site, where visitors are strictly instructed not to touch the monument's sparkling marble surface.

Tour guide Nitin Singh said he and his colleagues were impatient to welcome foreign travellers, and told AFP he had barely worked for nearly two years.

"All other businesses, all their people have started working, but the hospitality industry is still suffering badly," he said

"I really hope that things will get better soon."

After a twenty-month closure due to the pandemic, India on Monday reopened its borders to visitors from nearly 100 countries with reciprocal travel arrangements.

But tour operators say demand is extremely sluggish, thanks to high ticket prices and remaining restrictions on travellers from Britain, China and elsewhere.

The Pakistani city of Lahore was declared the most polluted city in the world by an air quality monitor on Wednesday, as residents choking in acrid smog pleaded with officials to take action.

Lahore had an air quality ranking of 348, well over the hazardous level of 300, according to IQAir, the Swiss technology company that operates the AirVisual monitoring platform.

"Children are experiencing breathing diseases... for God's sake, find a solution," labourer Muhammad Saeed told AFP.

Air pollution has worsened in Pakistan in recent years, as a mixture of low-grade diesel fumes, smoke from seasonal crop burn off, and colder winter temperatures coalesce into stagnant clouds of smog.

Lahore, a bustling megacity of more than 11 million people in Punjab province near the border with India, consistently ranks among the worst cities in the world for air pollution.

In recent years residents have built their own air purifiers and taken out lawsuits against government officials in desperate bids to clean the air -- but authorities have been slow to act, blaming the smog on India or claiming the figures are exaggerated.

"We are poor people, can't even afford a doctor's charges," shopkeeper Ikram Ahmed told AFP.

"We can only plead with them to control the pollution. I am not a literate person, but I have read that Lahore has the worst air quality and then comes India's Delhi. If it continues like this, we will die."

"Before, I used to come (for a walk) with my children but now I don't bring them out with me," Saeed the labourer said.

"There are factories and small industries operating here, either shift them somewhere else, give them compensation or provide them with modern technology, so we can get rid of this smog."

Delhi schools shut indefinitely as smog worsens
New Delhi (AFP) Nov 17, 2021 - Delhi shut down schools until further notice, urged people to work from home and banned non-essential trucks from entering the Indian capital due to dangerous levels of air pollution.

One of the world's most polluted cities and home to some 20 million people, Delhi is cloaked every winter in a thick blanket of smog.

On Saturday, the Delhi government had ordered schools to close for a week and banned construction work for four days.

But in an order passed late Tuesday, the Commission for Air Quality Management for Delhi said all education institutions should remain shut until further notice.

Lorries except those carrying essential goods are barred from entering the capital until November 21 and most construction activity was halted, the order said.

"Anti-smog guns" and water sprinklers were ordered to operate at hotspots at least three times a day.

Six of the 11 thermal power plants within a 300-kilometre radius were told to cease operations until further notice.

The commission also said that at least 50 percent of staff employed in government should work from home and encouraged those in private firms to follow suit.

The order comes days after the Delhi government pushed back against a call by India's Supreme Court to declare a "pollution lockdown" -- a first -- which would restrict the city's population to their homes.

One of the contributors to the air pollution in winter is the smoke from farmers burning their crop residue in neighbouring states.

The government, however, told the Supreme Court that industry was the biggest contributor followed by vehicular pollution and dust.

This week, PM 2.5 levels -- the most harmful particulate matter that is responsible for chronic lung and heart disease -- have been over 400 in several parts of the city.

Last week, the levels touched 500 which is more than 30 times the maximum limit recommended by the World Health Organization.

A Lancet report in 2020 said almost 17,500 people died in Delhi in 2019 because of air pollution.

And a report by Swiss organisation IQAir last year found that 22 of the world's 30 most polluted cities were in India.

'Find a solution,' say residents as smog blankets Pakistan's Lahore
Lahore, Pakistan (AFP) Nov 17, 2021 - The Pakistani city of Lahore was declared the most polluted city in the world by an air quality monitor on Wednesday, as residents choking in acrid smog pleaded with officials to take action.

Lahore had an air quality ranking of 348, well over the hazardous level of 300, according to IQAir, the Swiss technology company that operates the AirVisual monitoring platform.

"Children are experiencing breathing diseases... for God's sake, find a solution," labourer Muhammad Saeed told AFP.

Air pollution has worsened in Pakistan in recent years, as a mixture of low-grade diesel fumes, smoke from seasonal crop burn off, and colder winter temperatures coalesce into stagnant clouds of smog.

Lahore, a bustling megacity of more than 11 million people in Punjab province near the border with India, consistently ranks among the worst cities in the world for air pollution.

In recent years residents have built their own air purifiers and taken out lawsuits against government officials in desperate bids to clean the air -- but authorities have been slow to act, blaming the smog on India or claiming the figures are exaggerated.

"We are poor people, can't even afford a doctor's charges," shopkeeper Ikram Ahmed told AFP.

"We can only plead with them to control the pollution. I am not a literate person, but I have read that Lahore has the worst air quality and then comes India's Delhi. If it continues like this, we will die."

"Before, I used to come (for a walk) with my children but now I don't bring them out with me," Saeed the labourer said.

"There are factories and small industries operating here, either shift them somewhere else, give them compensation or provide them with modern technology, so we can get rid of this smog."


Related Links
Our Polluted World and Cleaning It Up


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FROTH AND BUBBLE
Delhi government resists call for 'pollution lockdown'
New Delhi (AFP) Nov 15, 2021
The Delhi government pushed back Monday against a call by India's top court to declare a "pollution lockdown", as children stayed away from school for a week because of dangerous smog levels. Air quality in Delhi - among the world's most polluted cities - regularly plummets to the "severe" category in winter with levels of harmful particulates at dangerous levels. On Saturday, the Supreme Court suggested imposing for the first time a "pollution lockdown", effectively confining the megacity's 2 ... read more

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