Skopje, 20 December 2024 (MIA) - Skopje is the most polluted city in Europe this morning, and the tenth most polluted city in the world, according to data from the air quality monitoring platform IQAir. The air in Skopje on Friday morning was unhealthy, while the air quality index stood at 163.

India's Delhi tops the list of most polluted cities in the world, followed by Pakistan's Lahore, Ghana's Accra, Iraq's Baghdad, Afghanistan's Kabul, Bangladesh's Dhaka, China's Wuhan and Chengdu, Vietnam's Hanoi, and Skopje as the tenth most polluted city in the world. 

According to IQAir, Pristina ranked 19th most polluted city in the world, Bucharest ranked 20th, Belgrade ranked 25th, Sofia ranked 45th and Athens ranked 63rd. 

The Zelen Human Grad (Green Humane City) initiative staged a protest march "For Clean Air" in Skopje on December 10, calling on competent institutions for urgent and systemic management of air pollution through implementation of efficient measures that protect citizens' health and drastically reduce air pollution.

"We are protesting because up to 5,000 people in Macedonia lose their lives annually as a direct consequence of exposure to PM 2.5 particles, representing 17.7 percent of total mortality in the country. It is particularly concerning that one in nine children under the age of one die because of polluted air," Zelen Human Grad said. 

Photo: MIA archive / print screen