Air Pollution and Human Security in Pakistan: Assessing a Multidimensional Environmental Threat

Abstract

Air pollution and smog have become a major challenge to human security in Pakistan, not only in terms of environmental degradation but also in terms of public health, livelihoods, economic productivity and the daily life of vulnerable people. This study examines how air pollution and smog affect human security and why existing policy and institutional responses have not been adequate. The study is based on qualitative research supplemented by descriptive secondary air-quality evidence. The human security perspectives of peer-reviewed literature, institutional publications and news reports were analyzed across seven human security dimensions: Economic, Health, Food, Environmental, Political, Personal, and Community Security. The majority of the evidence available relates to the state of Punjab, particularly Lahore, Multan and Faisalabad, and results are generalized across Pakistan. The results indicate that evidence is most robust for food security, health security, and descriptive measure of exposure, and is less robust for psychological effects. The primary governance and implementation challenges are weak enforcement of environmental laws, a lack of monitoring outside of the major cities, weak coordination between institutions, and a reactive approach to seasonal smog in response. According to the study, public health or environmental problems need not be taken care of only as environmental or public health problems; air pollution and smog should be treated as a multiple dimensioned human security problem. It calls for more robust implementation, more broad surveillance, more interagency collaboration, more specific protection of vulnerable communities and more proactive planning ahead of season, and prioritizes empirical research into facilities in the future.