Unsporting air quality
The recent withdrawal of Danish badminton player Mia Blichfeldt from the India Open, citing "extreme pollution" in New Delhi, is a reminder of the public health emergency that binds South Asia in a toxic embrace. While the incident technically only involved India, it is worth noting that Bangladesh, Pakistan and India generally top the list of countries with the worst urban air quality, led by cities such as Delhi, Noida, Dhaka, Lahore and Peshawar. Kabul also appears on many 'most-polluted' lists, which can now be simplified to simply be a list of every large city in the region.
India and Pakistan share the polluted air of the Indo-Gangetic Plains, one of the world's most toxic airsheds. A recent report ranked India as having 17 of the world's 30 most polluted cities, and Pakistan as the third most polluted country globally. Delhi and Lahore regularly vie for the title of the world's most polluted major city, with PM2.5 concentrations frequently soaring to over 20 times the WHO's safe limit. Despite some efforts to control smog and other air pollutants, the governments of India and Pakistan have been consistently underwhelming, with new highs hit every year during the winter months, when unfavourable weather, vehicular and industrial pollution, and the farming practice of stubble burning — which is illegal but still widely practiced — lead to a thick haze that makes Lahore, Delhi, and a few other regional cities hit global headlines every year.
India's high aspirations to host the Olympics will never get off the ground if world-class athletes reject its biggest cities over air quality concerns — Beijing was the last Olympics host where air quality was a concern, even though the seasonal and average AQIs there were, and still are, much lower than Delhi's. But this should not be a cause for smug comparison, but for sober recognition. Air quality solutions for Delhi, Lahore and other regional cities are intertwined.
The World Bank has called for a coordinated "airshed-based approach" because isolated national actions, however well-intentioned, cannot fight a force that does not recognise borders.