LAHORE: A thick blanket of toxic black smog engulfed the entire metropolitan of Lahore around 9pm Wednesday night, forcing many residents to either literally gasp for breath or complain about sore throats and watery eyes, murky smog cloaked the city of 11 million.
Parts of the city recorded an Air Quality Index (AQI) of 600-800, double the safety limits. In fact, Wednesday night was Lahore’s worst and most hazardous smog recording so far, this year.
Social media have gone viral after air pollution reaches ‘unbearable level’.
Just spammed a bunch of people complaining about smog with this. We literally wrote you a draft! Please send this. Her email is in the tweet https://t.co/WQDopz8CQo
— Aysha Raja (@aysharalam) November 6, 2019
It’s the exact same situation in gulberg and the canal. There is smoke. My eyes are watering. And breathing is heavy. https://t.co/Uy2QOEdrod
— Natasha Javed (@natashajaved1) November 6, 2019
There’s no stopping it. Thoughts with everyone who does not have the safety of masks and air-purifiers. I’m worried about so many people, there’s a strange dread and anxiety. #LahoreSmog#SaansLenayDo pic.twitter.com/oB09uzUF8D
— Dawar Butt (@thelahorewala) November 6, 2019
To put this smog crisis in context:
If I, as an able-bodied & well-fed young adult sitting in one of Lhr’s safest areas, is struggling to cope with Lahore’s air, just imagine what the city’s poor, old, children, patients and homeless are going through rn.It’s a crime.
— Hamza // attempting a hiatus (@wingsforus) November 6, 2019
I’ve just reached #Lahore from Islamabad and immediately felt an assault of gross smoke. Eyes burning, lungs feeling heavy, coughing. This feels more severe than our familiar (also gross) smog. What’s going on? #LahoreSmog
— Mariam TS (@mariamtee) November 6, 2019
Lahore is unbearable right now. The smog is impossible to escape.
We destroyed our water resources. Now our air is hazardous. We have turned elements of life into vehicles of death.
Urgent discussion needed on environmental costs of our developmental models. #SmogApocalypse
— Ammar Ali Jan (@ammaralijan) November 6, 2019
