Seven Indian cities have been ranked among the world's top 10 most polluted cities as of 2018, while India as a whole remains one of the countries with the poorest air quality alongside Bangladesh and Pakistan, a report prepared by Greenpeace and IQAir company showed on Tuesday
NEW DELHI (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th March, 2019) Seven Indian cities have been ranked among the world's top 10 most polluted cities as of 2018, while India as a whole remains one of the countries with the poorest air quality alongside Bangladesh and Pakistan, a report prepared by Greenpeace and IQAir company showed on Tuesday.
The rankings were compiled by IQAir using data from thousands of monitoring stations worldwide and are based on the concentration of the so-called PM2.5 particulate matter with the size of up to 2.5 microns in the air.
"The city ranking shows Asian locations dominating the highest 100 average PM2.5 levels during 2018, with cities in India, China, Pakistan and Bangladesh occupying the top 50 cities ... At a country level, weighted by population, Bangladesh emerges as the most polluted country on average, closely followed by Pakistan and India," the report said.
The top three cities experiencing the highest concentration of PM2.5 in the air include India's Gurugram, Ghaziabad both located just outside capital New Delhi and one of Pakistan's most populous cities, Faisalabad.
Moreover, 18 out of 20 cities with the poorest air quality are located in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, with India also accounting for 22 out of top 30 cities with the dirtiest air in the ranking.
"Air pollution is the greatest environmental risk to health today, estimated to contribute to 7 million premature deaths every year. Polluted air presents the world's 4th leading contributing cause of early deaths, and burdens the global economy with an estimated annual cost of $225 billion," the report said.
The air-quality rankings took into account a total of 3,095 cities and 73 countries.
