🔗 Share this article

On Tuesday morning inhabitants of this heavily contaminated metropolis were faced with exposed to extremely polluted air that fell into the "severe" level.

Extremely High Air Quality Levels

Multiple areas of the capital recorded an pollution measurement over 500, which equals a tenfold increase over the recommended limit set by the World Health Organization.

Certain monitoring stations, levels of PM2.5 and PM10 reached peaks of eighteen hundred, amounting to fifteen to twenty times above healthy standards.

Pyrotechnics Ban and Recent Changes

Beginning in 2020, the government had implemented a complete ban on the sale and use of fireworks during celebrations due to their substantial impact to the hazardous smog that blankets the capital as winter begins.

Yet in recent months, the newly elected local administration appealed to the highest court to request a relaxation of the ban.

They proposed allowing "environmentally conscious pyrotechnics" – which have been criticized by environmentalists as being only about 30% reduced emissions – as a balance between "tradition and ecological concerns".

Judicial Ruling and Reality

Much to the frustration of public health and environmental advocates, the court agreed to the appeal, mandating that eco-friendly pyrotechnics could be set off during limited hours throughout the celebrations.

Throughout the festival evening, there was widespread violation of the time restrictions across the city, with insufficient monitoring regarding whether the pyrotechnics being used were actually the supposedly greener variety.

Several recording stations throughout the city showed pollution reaching highest levels around late evening to the most severe levels seen during celebrations in at least recent memory.

International Consequences

The widespread use of pyrotechnics during the celebrations also triggered a controversy with bordering the neighboring country, with authorities in Pakistan's Punjab partly blaming declining atmospheric conditions in the city of Lahore on contaminants traveling from across the border following the festivities.

Long-Standing Environmental Problem

The dangerously high concentrations of atmospheric toxins in the city have remained as a major challenge for over a decade and a half, with the problem continuing to worsen.

Near Diwali, the amount of toxic airborne contaminants in the atmosphere has been documented to shoot up to seventy percent above the worst readings ever measured in China's capital, which was previously viewed as the world's most polluted urban center.

Multiple Pollution Sources

The situation in the capital is caused by a convergence of various sources including transportation pollution, dust, construction activities, rubbish burning and pollutants from crop residue ignition in nearby states of farming communities.

In these regions, farmers illegally burn crop residue to clear them quickly, creating dangerous haze that remains stagnant over the city as colder air descends.

Health and Financial Toll

The economic and health impact on the nearly 33 million people living in the capital region is substantial, according to numerous studies.

The contaminated air leads to increased incidence of nervous system, heart and circulatory and breathing conditions, and can even lead to oncological diseases.

Air quality crisis is estimated to be accounting for approximately 10k premature mortalities annually in the city.