A NATIONAL policy on combating air pollution has been long overdue. With Pakistan’s largest cities regularly ranking among the most polluted in the world, it is a wonder that the issue had not been looked into with more urgency. Better late than never, as they say. According to news reports, the federal government okayed the National Clear Air Policy recently, “aiming to improve air quality in the country by reducing pollution”. According to a story carried in this paper, the policy will attempt to provide a comprehensive framework to tackle air pollution, focusing on actions that can be taken at the national level to mitigate its harmful effects. Primary objectives of the policy have been identified as reducing deaths due to pollution-related illnesses, transboundary pollution, improving general health, and reducing the impact of air pollution on national economic activity.

According to Sherry Rehman, climate change minister and reportedly the driving force behind this effort, in the year 2019 alone, bad air caused 235,000 premature deaths in Pakistan. It reduced the average life expectancy by 2.7 years. Those are staggering numbers. There has been an equally stupefying economic cost borne by the country for its failure to act against the menace, which the World Bank has estimated to be around $48bn, according to Ms Rehman. It is encouraging to see the urgency with which this problem is now being tackled, although much remains dependent on the enthusiasm and commitment with which the provincial governments adopt the mitigation measures that are to be prescribed under the policy. Policymakers at all levels must realise that air pollution is an issue of considerable importance to the climate change crisis Pakistan faces. Hazardous levels of air pollution regularly disrupted life in some of the biggest cities of Punjab this past winter, disrupting economic activity. Karachi, where air pollution still remains an overlooked crisis, has seen a spate of deaths, including of children, which have been attributed to the discharge of toxic industrial gases close to or in residential areas. Respiratory illnesses are becoming increasingly common in the port city, impairing the quality of life of ordinary citizens who are unaware of the hazards of the dangerous pollutants they breathe in every day. The national policy to combat air pollution should be taken up with as much zeal as the other existential challenges we face.

Published in Dawn, March 12th, 2023