Let’s Say 'NO' to Air Pollution !!

Author: Mansoor Shah

Clean air is the blessings of nature. Allah has blessed us with clean air which is the key to a healthy life. Allah has also blessed us with a beautiful earth and its beauty lies in its greenery, but because of pollution causing activities, we have ruined it and we have forgotten the Message of our religion Islam about the cleanliness that ‘Cleanliness is Half of Faith’. So being Muslims it’s our duty to keep ourselves and our environment clean.

Our beloved city Peshawar used to be known as the City of Flowers, but it as a matter of sadness that we could not keep it that way and so much so that the World Health Organization has declared it the 6^th most polluted city in the world.

The most common causes of air pollution in Peshawar are the huge urbanization and the increase in sudden population of Peshawar with influx of Afghan refugees coupled with the increased use of energy consuming technologies that are necessary for the fulfillment of needs of such huge population such as vehicles, which have increased the vehicular emissions and with this we have even surpassed the permissible level of the carbon dioxide emissions provided by the World Health Organization which is 10 particles per million (PPM) to a shocking 27 PPM according to the Environmental Protection Agency statistics.

We can’t blame government alone for this dilemma in Peshawar as we, the citizens, are equally responsible because air pollution is the byproduct of our own actions and habits. Our lives are at risk and our average life time is reducing because of different diseases caused by air pollution which cause serious illness such as asthma, bronchitis and throat and lung cancers.

It’s time to eliminate air pollution from Peshawar and by doing so we can save millions of lives around us. We need to stand against this severe dilemma and say no to pollution causing activities as then and only then Peshawar will once again be rightfully called as Green Peshawar.