Asia | South Asia’s filthy air

India and Pakistan are choking on each other’s pollution

Fixing the problem will require countries that hate each other to co-operate

Highrise buildings are seen partially through dense smog in Mumbai, India, 18 January, 2023. Rising home prices and rentals a new inflation threat. Average house prices in top 7 cities- NCR, Pune, Kolkata, Mumbai, Metropolitan Region, Hyderabad, Chennai and Bengaluru- increased 4% to 7% between October and December according to an Indian media report.  (Photo by Indranil Aditya/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Image: Getty Images
|DELHI, DHAKA, ISLAMABAD AND MUMBAI

Indians are accustomed to seeing their streets getting a lick of paint or the odd pothole being filled before a senior politician or foreign dignitary comes to town. But to prepare for a visit from Narendra Modi, the prime minister, on February 10th officials in Mumbai deployed a new tactic. They sprinkled its roads with water.

Explore more

This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “Choked and gasping”

From the February 18th 2023 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

More from Asia

Illustration of national flags, including those of the US, the UK, South Korea, Japan and Australia, tucked into a crisscrossing lattice

Can Donald Trump maintain Joe Biden’s network of Asian alliances?

Discipline and creativity will help, but so will China’s actions

An alleged North Korean soldier after being captured by the Ukrainian army

What North Korea gains by sending troops to fight for Russia

Resources, technology, experience and a blood-soaked IOU


FK Arkadag's Didar Durdyev runs during a Turkmen football championship game

Is Arkadag the world’s greatest football team?

What could possibly explain the success of a club founded by Turkmenistan’s dictator


After the president’s arrest, what next for South Korea?

Some 3,000 police breached his compound. The country is dangerously divided

India’s Faustian pact with Russia is strengthening

The gamble behind $17bn of fresh deals with the Kremlin on oil and arms

AUKUS enters its fifth year. How is the pact faring?

It has weathered two big political changes. What about Donald Trump’s return?