Has Karachi really become the most polluted city?

How accurate is it that various online applications for air quality analysis have repeatedly declared Karachi's ambient air the most polluted in the world over the past several days?  Strangely enough, there is currently no centralized system in the world that can automatically analyze the atmosphere of all the world's cities. Nor is there an agency whose representatives are simultaneously monitoring the air quality of all major cities around the world.  

Free Air Index Apps

Take a look at the free applications that every conscious person downloads on

their smartphone and sees a dangerous rating of their city as a polluted city. The outcome is their higher level of anxiety, blood pressure and sugar.  

Partiality of Data

The overall air quality data on the Internet is also unreliable because in most of them there is only one parameter of air quality analysis as compare to its total five to six main parameters.  These are PM2.5, PM10, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide and ozone gas, the amount of which is called air pollution when it exceeds a certain limit.  

Top 5 pollution problems of Pakistan

Pakistan means the land of pure but actually it is one those countries that are almost fail to combat their pollution problems. Either it is land pollution, water pollution, air pollution or any other of similar kind; not only it is worsening day by day but also no one is to control it because of the ineffective pollution control mechanism. The end result is that people are suffering from various diseases owing to unbridled environmental degradation across the country.

Mainly Pakistanis are suffering from five types of pollutions. These are:

Land Pollution in Pakistan

This is one of the worst pollution problems in the county that has brutally hit the soil fertility and its other features. The main causes of this type of environmental decay are following:

• Mismanagement of solid waste
• Unsafe disposal of chemical and hazardous waste
• No proper mechanism to dispose of hospitals’ infectious waste

Dispose of hospital waste safely

All across the country hospital waste – infectious and hazardous – is being treated mostly like municipal waste or its many contents like syringes, bottles, utensils etc are illegally being reused or recycled which may cause fatal diseases including HIV positive, hepatitis etc

In most parts of the Pakistan no proper practices are adopted to dispose of hospital waste under environmentally safe method – incineration or autoclave – and it is being treated just like the civic waste. As a result not only collectors of such waste but people staying around it including patients, paramedics and general visitors are most vulnerable to various infectious germs and bacteria that are carried by it in abundance.

Your vehicle emits death not smoke but who cares?

Air pollution is one of the key environmental problems of Pakistan with particular reference to Sindh province where Karachi being one of the ten biggest cities of the world has been worst victim of air quality degradation owing to unchecked emissions of two million vehicles plying on roads and one million big and small factories situated in this province.

According to a rough estimate three million deaths each year all over the world are reported owing to poor air quality and an exact count in this regard with respect to Pakistan is not available but it is confirmed that numbers must be at alarming level owing to presence of various high level pollutants in ambient air of the urban centers of the country. Such gaseous contents are emitted by both gasoline and diesel vehicles with significant quantities of nitrogen oxide, particulates, carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon.

How to establish school environment clubs in Pakistan?

To raise environmental awareness at grassroots level, student community is one of the most vital segments of society. It is not only our future but students can also prevail upon their elders to follow environmental standards. Therefore, for the broader coverage of various strata of our society and to make them aware on environment and its related issues it is very important to take student community on board for the mass level awareness on environment.

What is school environment club?

School Environmental Club is not new phenomena in developed world, even in developing world of
Asia and South Asia many schools have such clubs and their members usually work under the patronage of a teacher or a group of teachers.

How to hire green volunteers?

In environment sector of Pakistan whether it is government or private one grievance is very common that is usually called lack of staff. It may be an excuse just to shield their lack of will for the protection of environment but this problem can also be solved if they really want to do something for the cause of green. They may hire volunteer without paying a single penny to them. In this way such departments would not only be able to work for the environmental care but they would also overcome the issue of outreach. By hiring the green volunteers from each nook and corner of the country they can get them do any type of green activity in the remotest area of their jurisdiction.

Here are tips to hire green volunteers to work for the cause of environmental care and protection without facing any burden of finances or management.