Technological progress progresses by leaps and bounds, new technologies appear that radically change the life of mankind. The price to pay for these achievements is simple: the dirtiest city in the world - such a not at all prestigious title is now ready to be shared by many settlements of our planet.

And if five to ten years ago the most polluted cities in the world were simply large metropolises, with a large population, air pollution from exhaust gases and heavy industry, now the situation has turned in a completely different direction. Modern processes mining, various types of production, and in some places simply the livelihoods of the population, cause truly terrible natural and environmental problems.

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How it happens

How do the world's most polluted cities emerge? With the ever-increasing standard of living, we are getting used to the fact that modern technology is able to provide for the slightest wishes in terms of ensuring comfort in everyday life. Such benefits of civilization seem natural and normal, because technical industries are developing, providing modern technologies literally in everything. Have you ever wondered how this actually happens?

Intensified development of mines and deposits inevitably leads to pollution of the surrounding air and groundwater. Since to ensure large-scale production, a large number of natural resources, wastewater treatment plants do not cope with their functions or are simply designed for a much smaller volume. The most dangerous situation is created in low-income countries, where no funds are allocated to maintain the environment.

The TOP of the dirtiest cities in the world is constantly updated with new objects. Added to the dangerous factors are total soil contamination, radioactive contamination, and high air pollution. Life in the most polluted cities in the world is truly dangerous and leads to massive genetic and physical illnesses, mutations, short life expectancy.

How is pollution assessed?

By what parameters are the most polluted cities in the world assessed? Many companies are assessing the most environmentally unfavorable areas for life. In particular, these are the World Health Organization (WHO), UNESCO and many others, including analytical ones. When determining the dirtiest cities in the world, several factors are taken into account:

  1. Content in the environment of substances that negatively affect human health. The soil, water and air in these areas are being carefully examined.
  2. Radioactive contamination.
  3. Proximity of the region to the source of pollution.
  4. Number of living population, birth rate.
  5. The influence of emissions on the development of a child's body.

The research was carried out on a certain scale, after studying the ecology, ratings were given for each of the parameters, and a list of the dirtiest cities in the world was compiled.

Rating of the most polluted cities

Which cities in the world are dangerous to live in? The number of regions unfavorable for living is growing steadily every year. If we compare the list of the most polluted cities in the world for 2016 with the most polluted cities in the world in 2017, the increase in polluted cities was about 10%. At this rate, clean cities will soon become real value on the planet.

According to WHO and the agency Curiosityaroused.com, the TOP 10 dirtiest cities in the world were announced. Of course, in fact there are many more of these regions; in some individual countries it is possible to create a similar list of ten or more objects. It should be borne in mind that this list reflects the most terrible problems of humanity in terms of ecology and danger to life.

LinFun (China)

Smog over Linfyn city:

This Chinese city is the cradle of coal mining for the entire country. Most of the enterprises are located here coal industry, both public, ensuring compliance with environmental standards, and private, working in their own interests, often half illegally.

Coal mining is carried out on a large scale, so the air around the city is oversaturated with coal dust, carbon and lead. All these elements also settle on buildings, cars, and people. The result of living in this dirty city in every sense of the word is diseases of the respiratory system of varying severity from complicated pneumonia to lung cancer.

Tianying (China)

The city is constantly shrouded in blue smoke, and at a distance of ten meters, even during the day, it is difficult to see anything:

This is the metallurgical heart of China. But in addition to industrial giants emitting metal oxides, dust and gas into the environment, lead mining also takes place here. The oxides of this heavy metal affect the air, water and soil not only in the city itself, but also within a radius of ten kilometers around it. Vegetables and grains grown here contain more than twenty times the lead content. This situation leads to the development of pathologically irreversible processes in the human brain, which is where the highest birth rate of children with symptoms of dementia is.

Sukinda (India)

In 84.75% of cases of illness among local residents, the increased content of chromium in the body is to blame:

This Indian town, back in 2016, was firmly ranked among the dirtiest cities in the world thanks to its chromium mines. Since treatment facilities in this region are still only at the development stage, local waters and air contain concentrations of chromium that are lethal to humans. This chemical element a strong carcinogen and causes gene mutations and various oncological health problems.

Dzerzhinsk (Russia)

Since the beginning of the last century, toxic waste has been dumped in the vicinity of the city, many of which are extremely dangerous to humans:

Some researchers believe that this city is Nizhny Novgorod region should top the top 10 dirtiest cities in the world. However, for now it is the dirtiest city in Russia. The situation here is almost critical: for many years, from 1938 to 1998, hazardous waste from various industries accumulated here. As a result, their number reached 300 thousand tons.

Considering the number of residents of this city, each person accounts for about one ton of the contents of deadly burial grounds. The level of such harmful chemicals, like phenols and dioxides, exceeds the maximum permissible limits by seventeen million times! Naturally, having such characteristics for life, Dzerzhinsk is an endangered region - the mortality rate here exceeds the birth rate by 26 times. The industry in this polluted place continues to operate only thanks to migrant workers who are forced to stay in the region due to high wages.

Norilsk (Russia)

Every year, about four million tons of cadmium, copper, lead, nickel, arsenic, selenium and zinc are released into the Norilsk air:

Consistently ends up in the dirtiest cities in the world. Built about ten years ago, the treatment systems have improved the overall picture in some ways. However, according to the results of a survey of the region in 2017, Norilsk still leads as the most polluted city in Russia and is among the 10 most polluted cities on our planet.

The problems of this city are the huge emissions from the largest metallurgical plant on the planet. Lethal doses of dangerous elements such as lead, cadmium, arsenic, zinc, copper and others are present in the atmosphere, groundwater and soil of this area. Norilsk has long been notorious as an area of ​​environmental problems - there is almost no vegetation, insects cannot survive, and black snow falls in winter.

Chernobyl (Ukraine)

Today, about 500 people live in the zone. Most of them are old people. Work is underway in the exclusion zone, but the government, for safety reasons, allows you to stay in the exclusion zone for a maximum of 14 days:

The city is world famous for the explosion at a nuclear power plant in April 1986. Radioactive elements quickly spread through gusts of wind to nearby areas over one hundred and fifty thousand square kilometers. Residents of the city were hastily evacuated, and people are still not allowed to live here.

Research by international organizations, including, according to WHO, plutonium, uranium, iodine, strontium and heavy metals are present in the affected area in concentrations unacceptable for human existence. Chernobyl as a vast zone nuclear disaster, since 1986 one of the most polluted cities in the world.

Dhaka (Bangladesh)

Bangladeshis themselves do not care about the environment: garbage is scattered everywhere, and industrial and medical waste is simply dumped into rivers:

The capital of Bangladesh is notorious for its environmental conditions. Total water pollution with pesticides and pathogenic bacteria makes life in this city deadly. Another important factor is the lack of waste processing plants. There is no fight against the problems of storing garbage waste, so mountains of garbage can be seen right on the roads and in residential areas of the city.

In fact, Dhaka is the dirtiest city in the world if pollution is measured in a literal sense. Considering the warm climate of the country, waste pollution and the proliferation of microorganisms leads to increased air pollution, unsuitability drinking water in food, infectious diseases and high mortality among the population.

Kabwe (Zambia)

Within a radius of ten kilometers from Kabwe, it is deadly to drink water and even breathe air:

In this African region, large deposits of lead were discovered about a hundred years ago. Since then, active mining has been underway; the mines are constantly poisoning the environment, including the air, groundwater and soil. Damage to the body heavy metal is fraught with blood poisoning, muscle atrophy and irreversible changes in the functioning of internal organs.

La Oroya (Peru)

The surroundings of the city are more reminiscent of a lunar landscape with bare scorched earth, without grass, trees and bushes:

The small town has been regularly exposed to toxin emissions from working mines since 1922. The level of lead in the blood of local residents is many times higher than even the maximum permissible level. The vegetation in this region is regularly destroyed by acid rain, and the majority of local residents have pathologies incompatible with life.

Karabash (Russia)

Vegetation is almost completely absent, scorched earth, mountains of waste, cracked earth orange color, acid rain. Products from the processing of lead, arsenic, sulfur and copper are in the air

Which city tops the world's most polluted cities? Today, according to the world organization UNESCO, the dirtiest city in the world is Karabash, located in Chelyabinsk region our vast Motherland.

Pollution of this region began in 1822, when gold ore reserves were discovered here. In the twentieth century, the mining and smelting of copper was added to the development of gold veins, which made the city of Karabash a real zone of environmental disaster. The fact is that in those days, when developing deposits, they did not particularly care about the environmental aspect of the process and there were no treatment facilities as such. During its continuous operation, the copper alloy production plant, simply put, burned out all living things in vast areas around it. Thanks to the work of this industrial giant, acid rain, dense atmospheric pollution and an almost complete absence of vegetation have become frequent guests in this area.

Needless to say, the population in this region (this includes Karabash itself and nearby Chelyabinsk) is gradually dying out due to various deadly pathologies caused by the environment. Cancerous tumors, genetic abnormalities, mutations, dementia and cerebral palsy are the most common causes of high mortality among residents of this region.

This is a real problem

The problem of total pollution environment every year it becomes more acute. The number of the world's dirtiest cities is steadily growing. Every year, the TOP ten dirty cities include not only underdeveloped cities from countries below the poverty line, but large, industrial regions. Soil migration, air currents and cyclones spread harmful soil, air and groundwater over many kilometers, thereby creating a global environmental problem for all inhabitants of planet Earth.

Canada: 557 million tons of CO 2 per year. The typical image of Canada is virgin forests, crystal clear lakes, mountains and rivers, nature and space. Despite this, Canada is among the top ten countries that emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. greatest number carbon dioxide. To change this situation, in October 2016, the Canadian government announced its intention to introduce a carbon tax.

South Korea: 592 million tons of CO 2 per year. Refugees from North Korea they say that life in the country of its southern neighbors is like a breath fresh air. This metaphor may sound like a cruel irony: the air in South Korea is one of the most polluted in Asia, sometimes literally suffocating. Spring in Seoul is like being in the same room with a person who smokes 4 packs of cigarettes a day. South Korea has 50 coal plants (and more are planned), and Seoul is home to more than 10 million people, almost all of whom use cars. Unlike Canada, South Korea is not taking any measures that could improve the environmental situation.

Saudi Arabia: 601 million tons of CO 2 per year. According to WHO, the capital Saudi Arabia Riyadh is one of the most polluted cities in the world, and even in Beijing you don’t get the same “periodic table” that poisons your breath in Riyadh. In this case, the problem of industrial waste is aggravated by difficult natural conditions, in particular, frequent and sometimes terrifying sandstorms. Environmental issues in Saudi Arabia are considered secondary, and, like South Korea, the state does not intend to reduce oil and gas production and processing industries.

Iran: 648 million tons of CO 2 per year. The city of Ahwaz in Iran, once the winter residence of the Persian kings, is today a major metallurgical center and one of the cities with the most polluted air in the world. For example, in Moscow the average annual concentration of PM10 (fine particles that are an important component of air pollution) is 33 μg/m 3 , and in Ahvaz sometimes reaches 372 μg/m 3 . But problems with carbon dioxide emissions, alas, are typical for the entire territory of Iran. In November 2016, all the capital's schools were closed due to deadly fumes choking the city. “Deadly” is not a figure of speech here: in 23 days, more than 400 people died from air pollution. In addition to petrochemical production, which significantly worsens the environment, an important reason for this situation in Iran is sanctions. For the past 38 years since the end of the Islamic Revolution, Iranians have been driving old cars with low-quality fuel.

Germany: 798 million tons of CO 2 per year. The presence of Germany on this list is as surprising as the presence of Canada. But don’t be deceived: in addition to green fields, a good economy and eco-orientation, Germany has a lot major cities. Thus, Stuttgart is called the “German Beijing” - there is no smog here, but the level of concentration of dangerous particles is quite high. In 2014, particle concentrations exceeded the permissible limit for 64 days, making the air dirtier than Seoul and Los Angeles combined. In 28 regions of the country, the level of air pollution is considered dangerous. In 2013, more than 10 thousand German residents died from high levels of nitrogen oxides in the air.

Japan: 1237 million tons of CO 2 per year. Japan ranks 5th in the world in terms of pollution, emitting almost twice as much carbon dioxide into the air as South Korea. But all this is a giant step forward compared to what was happening on the island state literally 50 years ago. Horrible syndromes caused by pollution, such as Minamata disease (heavy metal poisoning), killed many Japanese people. It wasn't until the 1970s that Japanese authorities began to take steps towards living in a cleaner environment. The environmental situation in Japan worsened slightly after the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident in 2011: the disaster led to almost all Japanese nuclear power plants being closed and replaced with coal-fired ones.

Russia: 1617 million tons of CO 2 per year. Yes, Moscow sometimes exhibits particularly dangerous levels of air pollution, but Russia’s fourth position in the list of countries with the highest CO2 content in the air is still occupied by the Chelyabinsk region and the industrial cities of Siberia. Novokuznetsk, Angarsk, Omsk, Krasnoyarsk, Bratsk and Novosibirsk produce more emissions into the atmosphere than the multimillion-dollar city of Moscow. About 6% of all carbon monoxide emissions in Russia are due to the Chelyabinsk region. The city of Karabash in the Chelyabinsk region was recognized as an environmental disaster zone in 1996, and in the media it is often called the most polluted city in the world.

India: 2274 million tons of CO 2 per year. According to some estimates, about 1.2 million people die every year from air pollution in India. Yes, India has announced its desire for cleaner energy, but how realistic this is is a big question. The country's economy is growing, yet hundreds of millions of Indians still lack electricity and live in squalid conditions. One of India's major economic achievements recent years is to reduce the country’s dependence on coal imports: through the growth of its own coal production, which India is confidently increasing every year. If we stop this coal mining, the air will become cleaner, but the country will be poorer.

USA: 5414 million tons of CO 2 per year. Despite numerous environmental protection programs and developments in the field of green energy, the United States is still among the leaders in environmental pollution. According to a 2016 report by the American Lung Association, more than half of the country's population breathes air with extremely dangerous levels of pollution. It can be rephrased this way: 166 million Americans daily put themselves at risk of developing asthma, heart disease, and cancer due to the air they breathe. The most polluted cities are concentrated in sunny California.

China: 10,357 million tons of CO 2 per year. Japan, Russia, India and the USA occupy adjacent positions in this ranking, but even if these countries are combined into one, then in this case the amount of carbon dioxide emissions into the air will not be comparable to what is happening in China: if air pollution were Olympic sport, China became the leader in the medal standings. "Red," the highest level of air pollution, is not uncommon in many Chinese cities, as are reports of millions of residents being confined to their homes by toxic smog. The air situation in China is not getting better - just in December 2016, the concentration of fine suspended particles PM10 (we talked about them above) exceeded 800 μg/m3. For comparison: the safe average annual concentration of PM10 from the WHO point of view is 20 μg/m 3 .

Do you complain about the poor environment in the country, do you think things can’t get worse? We hasten to dissuade you, the state of the environment in some countries is more critical. However, this does not bode well for us, because we all live on the same planet. Someone constantly compiles ratings of cities and states in terms of ecology and cleanliness. The most environmentally friendly countries are always considered to be: Switzerland, Luxembourg, Norway, Latvia, Sweden, Austria, Italy, Costa Rica, and the UK. World countries with bad environment much more, but let’s focus on the following ten, which often appear on lists of the dirtiest states.

The situation is especially acute because China's population is 1,349,585,838 people. On the one hand, all these lives are endangered by environmental pollution. On the other hand, such a large number of inhabitants causes gigantic volumes of consumption and waste.

And also a developing industry - heavy, mining, energy. The greatest threat is pollution atmospheric air. So, in major cities The incidence of lung cancer is 3 times higher than in rural areas.

This country ranks second in population - 1,220,800,359 people, some of the factors causing pollution are similar to China, and air pollution is also catastrophic. Experts estimate that in 40 years, over 3 million people in the world will die per year due to “dirty” air, and most of them will be residents of China and India.

Despite the fact that the Republic of South Africa is the most economically developed country in Africa, it cannot boast of intensive development methods that are environmentally friendly.

Mexico's problem is water pollution. Reserves fresh water in the country are already limited, while untreated wastewater - industrial and sewage - ends up in rivers. The problem of deforestation is also relevant.

Tourists from all over the world go to this tropical paradise to have a good time and admire the amazing landscapes. Yes, this is true in the resort areas of Indonesia. However, other areas suffer from various types of pollution, and the problem of waste disposal is ineffectively solved.

The modern government of Japan pays enough attention to protecting the environment, Japanese corporations are developing the best environmentally friendly technologies, but the population will continue to pay for the mistakes of the past for a long time, for example, the rapid growth of industry after World War II and the overexploitation of natural resources.

7 – Libya

In Libya, the tense environmental situation is caused not so much by industry as by the political situation and military actions.

A state in Southeast Asia - Kuwait - has 9% of the world's oil reserves. Hence the developed economy, reverse side– environmental problems.

9 – Uzbekistan

There are many problems related to the environment in Uzbekistan. Their drying is especially clearly demonstrated Aral Sea, which is an environmental disaster.

10 – Iraq

Military operations in this country did not pass without a trace. The population of Iraq is now suffering from the deterioration of the environmental situation, and this is no less than 31,858,481 people.

World Health Organization (WHO, World Health Organization, WHO) is an institution whose main function is to decide global problems health care of the population around the world. Among the main ones is environmental pollution. WHO annually collects data on how pollution levels are changing in different countries peace. Based on this information, I compiled a ranking of the most polluted countries.

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WHO Statistics

Pollution not only harms our planet, but also negatively affects the health of its inhabitants. Factories, cars, and airplanes make their deplorable contribution to environmental pollution. Even the use of sprays and aerosols destroys ozone layer of our planet. Every year, more than 1.8 million people die due to non-communicable lung diseases. Globally, 9 out of 10 people breathe polluted air. More than three quarters of deaths from stroke, lung cancer and respiratory diseases are associated with high level air pollution.


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These sad statistics were released by the World Health Organization in 2018. At the same time, a list of countries with the highest levels of pollution was published. According to their data, in poor countries where income levels range from low to middle, the air in 97% of cities does not meet WHO air quality recommendations. Data on the concentration of fine particle pollution (PM 2.5) were used to create the ranking.


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The dirtiest countries in the world

Environmental issues Pakistan lie in two planes: depletion of natural resources and environmental pollution. In conditions of hostilities, the country cannot properly improve the living conditions of its citizens. Because of this, rivers are drying up, and large cities suffer from smog.


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Qatar- a rapidly developing state. Despite its status as the richest country, it almost took the palm in terms of environmental pollution. Environmentalists attribute this to the fact that when producing large volumes of natural gas and petroleum products, Qatari enterprises emit critically large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Residents of the country are concerned about the greenhouse effect.


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Ecological situation in Afghanistan very fragile and unstable. This is due to military operations in the country over the past few decades: depletion of fields and forests, emissions from vehicles and wood burning. Afghanistan also suffers from overpopulation, which does not improve the environmental situation of the country.


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Bangladesh regularly suffers from floods and landslides, and like Afghanistan, this country has a critically high population level. Most of them are below the poverty level. The construction of the Farakka Dam also has environmental consequences for the country.


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Problems with the environmental situation in Egypt associated mainly with high levels of tourism. The amount of waste increases annually, while the supply of water, due to geographical features, is regularly depleted.


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Uncontrolled use of natural resources has led to one of the richest countries in the world UAE on the verge of an environmental catastrophe. The situation is also worsened by the depletion of drinking water sources, as well as the virtual complete lack of interest of leading officials in improving the environmental situation.


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Deforestation and forest fires lead to Mongolia into desolation. As in other countries, its resources are being depleted, while the residents and government of Mongolia are temporarily unable to pay due attention to the current situation.

The main reason for the accumulation of garbage in this country is overpopulation. A huge number of factories, transport and household waste have turned almost all water bodies of India into garbage dumps, and the main rivers - the Indus and the Ganges - have become one of the most dangerous for humans. Another problem is animals, or rather cows. Their number is not regulated, because killing cows as sacred animals is prohibited. They have become carriers of diseases, which in unsanitary conditions easily lead to epidemics.

In a small state there is no clear system for garbage collection, and city residents are not known for their love of order. All household waste accumulates near houses for years. In hot climates, all this quickly rots and produces not the most pleasant odors. Meanwhile, Myanmar citizens are deeply concerned about the construction of 12 coal-fired power plants. Their appearance will only worsen the ecological situation of a poor country.

India's neighbor is also overpopulated and also has the highest population density in the world. Garbage from other countries has been brought here for many years, and the small state simply does not have time to process it. Numerous waste factories also worsen the environmental condition. Bangladesh has already been on the brink of disaster twice. This first happened when more than half the country's population was poisoned by water containing arsenic. Then the rate of cancer and genetic diseases in children jumped sharply. A few years later, two oil tankers collided, causing environmental pollution to reach unprecedented proportions.

Afghanistan

There has been a war in this country for many years, which is why few people care about environmental problems. Although the situation is already close to catastrophic. The only thing that is not very polluted here is the air. There are no factories here large quantity transport. But there is also no sewerage or garbage collection. People dump waste in areas that often burn. In Afghanistan serious problems With drinking water, soils and groundwater.

For two decades African country became trash for Europe. 90 percent of the waste was brought here. Almost the entire share came from the capital, Lagos. The city's population increased 3 times, which led to a worsening of the situation. Lagos factories were unable to process everything that was imported, and citizens' garbage accumulated, polluting rivers and streets. Currently, only 10 percent of waste is recycled, the rest remains on the streets. The humid and hot climate, coupled with dirt, contributes to epidemics and hordes of rats.

A mountainous state, the level of pollution of which is visible from space. But people are not the only ones to blame here. Frequent earthquakes Most of the infrastructure has been destroyed, and cities simply do not have time to process waste. Dust and plastic storage reduce the life expectancy of Nepalese by an average of 4 years. The main attraction of the country - Mount Everest - has already become a victim of human negligence. Every year, mountains of garbage are removed from here, but tourists don’t care about the top. Therefore, the authorities are thinking of seriously limiting the flow of climbers.