Seven of the top 10 most polluted cities in the world are in India, according to a new study showing South Asia’s battle with deteriorating air quality and the economic toll it is expected to take worldwide.
Gurugram, southwest of the Indian capital of New Delhi, led all cities in pollution levels last year, even as its score improved from the previous year, according to data released by IQAir AirVisual and Greenpeace.
Three other Indian cities joined Faisalabad, Pakistan, in the top five.
Photo: Reuters
The index measures the presence of fine particulate matter known as PM2.5, a pollutant that can fester deep in the lungs and bloodstream of human beings.
“This has enormous impacts, on our health and on our wallets,” Greenpeace Southeast Asia executive director Yeb Sano said in a statement released with the figures. “In addition to human lives lost, there’s an estimated cost of US$225 billion in lost labor, and trillions in medical costs.”
India, the world’s fastest-growing major economy, makes up 22 of the top 30 most polluted cities, with five in China, two in Pakistan and one in Bangladesh.
India racks up healthcare costs and productivity losses from pollution of as much as 8.5 percent of GDP, according to the World Bank.
China made marked progress in its usually dismal pollution levels, with average concentrations falling by 12 percent last year from the previous year, according to the data.
That should help the message Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to share with political party leaders on progress across three so-called “critical battles” during the National People’s Congress meetings that start this week.
Sano traced much of the problematic readings back to climate change. He said that burning fossil fuels is the key driver of climate change and of air pollution worldwide, and that shifting atmospheric conditions have worsened air quality and amplified forest fires.
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