LAHORE: Pakistani officials have announced that schools would reopen today in Punjab, the South Asian country’s most populated province, after a decline in dangerous air pollution.
Schools have been closed for around two weeks in the province, home to about half the nation’s 240 million population, as smog hit dangerous levels.
“The ambient air quality has improved in the province, due to rain in upper areas of the province, change in wind direction as well as speed,” Punjab’s environmental agency claimed late Tuesday.
بالائی پنجاب میں بارش کی وجہ پنجاب بھر میں فضائی معیار بہتر ہو گیا ہے۔
لہذا، پورے صوبے بشمول لاہور اور ملتان ڈویژن میں تمام تعلیمی ادارے 20 نومبر (بدھ) سے درج ذیل پابندیوں/احتیاطی تدابیر کے ساتھ کھولے جا رہے ہیں:#epapunjab pic.twitter.com/RRtL3wqlno— Environmental Protection Agency, Punjab (@EPCCDpunjab) November 19, 2024
“Therefore, all schools in the province, including Lahore and Multan Division, shall be opened” beginning Wednesday morning, it added.
Staff and Students will be required to wear face masks, it said, while also issuing order a complete ban on outdoor co-curricular and outdoor sports activities till further orders.
READ ALSO: Toxic Smog Persists over India’s North as Pollution Remains Severe in Delhi
Breathing toxic air has disastrous health costs, with the World Health Organization (WHO) warning that heart disease, strokes, lung cancer and respiratory diseases can be prompted by prolonged exposure.
Since Sunday, the Air Quality Index (AQI) has dropped below 300, the threshold considered “hazardous” for humans. Earlier, the Air Quality Index (AQI) hit a record high of 1,110.
— Environmental Protection Agency, Punjab (@EPCCDpunjab) November 19, 2024
But as of Tuesday evening, the concentration of PM2.5 micro-particle toxins in Lahore was still more than ten times higher than levels considered acceptable by the WHO.
According to a University of Chicago study, high levels of pollution have already dropped life expectancy in Lahore, Punjab with its 14 million inhabitants, by 7.5 years, AFP reported.
Similar hazardous conditions have also hit India’s capital New Delhi, where classes have been shifted online following air pollution surged past 60 times the WHO-suggested daily maximum.
