Toxic air

After a lengthy spectacle of anti-smog guns in Lahore that were vehemently defended by the Punjab government, Lahore has once again emerged as the world's most polluted city with an Air Quality Index (AQI) of 452. According to air quality monitoring platform IQAir, an AQI of over 300 places a region within the "hazardous" bracket which poses serious health risks to the population, especially children and the elderly. Air pollution in Lahore has been an unnecessarily prolonged fight which has not only caused multiple chronic health conditions, but also numerous deaths as citizens struggle against an unbreathable environment.

Now that the performance of campaigns has passed, so to say, citizens are right back where they started — cooped inside their homes to avoid burning eyes, persistent headaches and wheezing coughs. And like clockwork, the brunt of this travesty is borne by lower- and middle-class daily wage earners who have to work in the open whether they like it or not. And as they struggle to make ends meet, the Punjab government has cleaned their hands of the over Rs675 million that they spent on fog cannons.

It is important to note that these fog cannons have categorically been cited as short-term, localised solutions by multiple studies — studies that even hint toward a possible increase in secondary pollutant formation as a result. Moreover, each unit can consume up to 360,000 litres of water per day. In a city battling with a water emergency, as highlighted by the Lahore High Court in 2025, this has undoubtedly brought forth even more long-term troubles than relief.

All the while, unchecked vehicular emissions, ageing industrial infrastructure and the unregulated burning of crops remain persistent. If the city continues to rely on reactive measures rather than sustainable solutions, this public health emergency will only produce more chronic illnesses than ever before.