ISLAMABAD: The World Bank has stated that overlapping mandates between environmental and industrial ministries complicate coordination and delay transitions towards less polluting technologies in Pakistan.
A report titled “A Breath of Change: Solutions for Cleaner Air in the Indo-Gangetic Plains and Himalayan Foothills, released by the Bank, noted that Pakistan has nascent but incomplete industrial emissions monitoring and inspection. Pakistan and Bangladesh may consider a mix of refinery upgrades and fuel imports to achieve Euro V/VI fuel supply, it added.
Implementing cleaner brick kilns, boilers, furnaces, and power generation across Bangladesh, Nepal, India, and Pakistan requires an enabling environment that tackles financial, technical, and institutional barriers.
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Air pollution is the largest risk factor for deaths in South Asia, ranking above factors such as smoking, diet, and blood pressure. Exposure to air pollution resulted in 190 deaths per 100,000 people, higher than the global average of 92 deaths per 100,000 (HEI, 2025).
Exposure to air pollution also reduces life expectancy by almost three years in the IGP-HF countries, significantly higher than the global average of 1.8 years. Among the IGP-HF countries, Nepal experienced the highest loss of life due to ambient air pollution (3.05), followed closely by Bangladesh (2.91) and Pakistan (2.83).
In Bangladesh, every student in public primary and secondary schools is exposed to PM2.5 levels exceeding 35 µg/m³. Nepal and Pakistan fare only marginally better.
In Nepal, 93% of students—roughly 5.4 million—are exposed to these hazardous pollution levels. In Pakistan, the figure reaches 95%, impacting nearly 22.4 million students. In India, with a massive population of school-age children, nearly 8 in 10 students (79%), or over 201 million children, are exposed to similarly unsafe air, underscoring the pervasive nature of the crisis.
Accelerating the shift to cleaner brick kilns, boilers, furnaces, and power generation requires strong and well-targeted financial incentives across Bangladesh, Nepal, India, and Pakistan.
Heavy-duty vehicles like trucks and buses, light-duty vehicles such as cars, motorcycles, and auto-rickshaws, as well as road dust, each contribute roughly a third to transport-related pollution.
The severity of transport emissions stems from multiple factors. These include outdated vehicle emission standards—Euro II in Pakistan and Bangladesh, compared to Euro VI in India—combined with low fuel standards.
The fuels used in Bangladesh and Pakistan have high-sulfur content that significantly exceeds the 10 ppm Euro V limit (in some areas, up to 500 ppm are observed). Poorly maintained and aging vehicle fleets, along with rising private vehicle use amid insufficient public transport alternatives, further compound the problem.
Charging infrastructure is severely limited, with at present only 1,500 public EV chargers in Pakistan and fewer than 500 in rural Bangladesh, preventing widespread EV adoption.
In Bhutan and Pakistan, fragmented oversight between transport and environmental agencies prevents a unified strategy for urban traffic management. In Pakistan, national and provincial frameworks for solid waste management are in place, yet implementation remains uneven due to resource and capacity constraints, the report noted.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
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