Lahore has once again emerged among the world’s most polluted cities, ranking just below Delhi with an Air Quality Index (AQI) of 247, which falls in the “very unhealthy” category.
The city’s worsening air quality is mainly the result of prolonged dry weather and still air, causing pollutants from traffic and other sources to accumulate instead of dispersing.
Data from the IQAir website at 2:40 pm on Tuesday showed Delhi at the top with an AQI of 280, followed by Lahore. China’s Chongqing came in third with an AQI of 201. Kuwait City recorded 190, placing it fourth.
Dhaka followed next with an AQI of 189, while Kolkata reported 185. Cairo and Tashkent stood at seventh and eighth with AQIs of 177 and 168. Hanoi ranked ninth with 167, and Mumbai rounded off the top ten with 164.
The top three cities recorded “very unhealthy” air, while cities ranked fourth to sixteenth were classified as “unhealthy.” Those from the seventeenth to the twenty-fifth fell into the “unhealthy for sensitive groups” category.