Top countries with the dirtiest air. List of the most polluted cities in the world. Dzerzhinsk, Russia - chemical production

The cleanest country in the world is Switzerland— the state-leader in solving pollution control issues environment and problems with natural resources. The dirtiest country on the planet Iraq. But this is only in terms of the state of ecology today. In the ranking of trends in the development of the environmental situation over the past 10 years, the shameful last place is occupied by Russia. While the leading country in terms of environmental improvement from 2000 to 2010 is Latvia. The rating of the cleanest and dirtiest countries in the world, indicating the index of well-being of environmental trends in 2012, was Yale and Columbia Universities.

Top ten environmentally sound countries included, in addition to Switzerland, which took first place, small states and major European powers: Latvia (2nd place), Norway (3rd place), Luxembourg (4th place), Costa Rica (5th place), France (6th), Austria (7th), Italy (8th), UK and Northern Ireland(9th place), Sweden (10th place). The rating once again testified to the difference between the ecology of developed and developing countries (5th place for Costa Rica and 49th for the USA is an exception to the rule). However, according to Western experts, the point is not that the major European powers transfer all their harmful production to the poor countries of the world. It's about GDP per capita, as well as investment in basic environmental goods (people's access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation). Developing countries are still on their way to providing a high standard of living for their populations, as well as moving towards more sustainable production and consumption processes.

Top ten countries with the worst environment , in addition to Iraq, which took the last place, included: Turkmenistan (131st place), Uzbekistan (130th place), Kazakhstan (129th place), South Africa (128th place), Yemen (127th place), Kuwait (126th place), India (125th place) , Bosnia and Herzegovina (124th place), Libya (123rd place). The greatest concern among health experts is caused by the ecological situation in China (116th place) and India, since 1/3 of the world's population lives in these countries. Already, air pollution in the Middle Kingdom is the biggest threat to the health of its inhabitants. According to the English newspaper The Guardian, « incidence of lung cancer in Chinese cities in 2-3 times higher than in countryside, despite the fact that they smoke both there and there the same way". Health experts predict that by 2050, air pollution will kill every year. 3.6 million Human. And most of these deaths will be in India and China.

Photo from the site "RIA Novosti"

6 of the dirtiest countries in the world are also in the top 10 countries with extremely negative environmental trends (right column in the general table). The worst results in changing the environmental situation from 2000 to 2010, as mentioned above, were shown by Russia. Kuwait is in second place on this black list, Saudi Arabia is in third, followed by Bosnia and Herzegovina, Estonia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Iraq, South Africa, and Turkmenistan closes the top ten outsiders. According to the conclusion of Western experts, Russia has demonstrated the worst trends in the change in the environmental situation due to critically low indicators in the field of environmental protection. The population of the Russian Federation enjoys a weak environmental legislation countries, which translates into problems such as overfishing and deforestation. The only environmental indicator that has improved in Russia over the past 10 years is the volume of sulfur dioxide emissions. Surprisingly, it has shrunk.

The position of our country and the nine countries of the world that have joined it looks especially sad against the background of the other participants in the rating. The vast majority of states have improved their environmental performance over the period from 2000 to 2010. Top Trends showed Latvia, in second place - Azerbaijan, in third - Romania, followed by Albania, Egypt, Angola, Slovakia, Ireland, Belgium and Thailand.


Each of the 132 countries participating in the ranking was evaluated according to 22 parameters, including: the detrimental impact of the environment on public health, the impact of polluted air and polluted water on human health, the impact of polluted atmosphere and water resources on ecosystems, the state of forests, the scale of fishing and Agriculture, climate change and more.

Ecological card of Russia:


Ecological card of Ukraine:


Ecological card of Belarus:


Ecological card of Kazakhstan:


Ecological card of Moldova:



TOP 10 dirtiest countries in the world © Depositphotos

Activists and scientists have drawn attention to environmental issues for many decades. And this is not at all accidental, because in the world a large number of countries are on the verge of an ecological disaster. Editorial tochka.net I decided to find out which countries are the dirtiest in the world, and what led to this situation.

Greenpeace and software company AirVisual have compiled a ranking of the countries with the most polluted air, which leads to the premature death of several million people a year. The list of countries with the most difficult environmental situation includes mainly the countries of Asia and Africa.

The dirtiest countries in the world

Technological progress is advancing by leaps and bounds, new technologies are emerging that radically change the life of mankind. The payoff for these achievements is simple: the dirtiest city in the world is such a not-so-prestigious title today that many people are ready to share. settlements our planet.

And if five or ten years ago the most polluted cities in the world were just large metropolitan areas, with big amount population, air pollution by exhaust gases and heavy industry enterprises, now the situation has turned in a completely different direction. Modern processes of mining, production different directions, and in some places just the livelihoods of the population, cause truly terrible natural and environmental problems.

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How does this happen

How do the most polluted cities in the world appear? With the constantly rising standard of living, we are getting used to the fact that modern technology is able to provide for the slightest wishes in terms of providing 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?

The increased 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, treatment facilities 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. Total soil pollution, radioactive contamination, high air pollution were added to the dangerous factors. Life in the most environmentally polluted cities in the world is really dangerous and leads to massive genetic and physical diseases, mutations, short life expectancy.

How pollution is assessed

How are the world's most polluted cities ranked? Many companies are involved in 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 adversely affect human health. The soil, water and air in these areas are being carefully studied.
  2. radioactive contamination.
  3. Proximity of the region to the source of pollution.
  4. Number of living population, birth rate.
  5. The impact of emissions on the development of the child's body.

The studies were carried out on a certain scale, after studying the ecology, marks 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 life is steadily growing every year. If we compare the list of the most polluted cities in the world in 2016 with the most polluted cities in the world in 2017, then the increase in polluted cities was about 10%. At this pace, clean cities will soon become a real asset to the planet.

According to the WHO and the agency Curiosityaroused.com, the TOP 10 most polluted 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 mankind in terms of ecology and danger to life.

LinFyn (China)

Smog over the city of Linfeng:

This chinese city- the cradle of coal mining for the whole country. Here is the bulk of the coal industry, both state-owned, enforcing environmental regulations, and private, operating in their own interests, often semi-illegal.

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, people. The result of living in this city, which is dirty 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 gray smoke, and at a distance of ten meters, even during the day, it is difficult to see something:

It is the metallurgical heart of China. But in addition to industrial giants that emit metal oxides, dust and gas into the environment, lead is also mined here. Oxides of this heavy metal affected the air, water and soil not only in the city itself, but also within a radius of ten kilometers around it. The lead content in the vegetables and cereals grown here is more than twenty times higher. This situation leads to the development of pathologically irreversible processes in the human brain, it is here that the most high level the birth rate of children with dementia symptoms.

Sukinda (India)

84.75% of cases of diseases of local residents are to blame increased content chromium in the body:

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

Dzerzhinsk (Russia)

In the vicinity of the city since the beginning of the last century, they dropped toxic waste, many of which are extremely dangerous to humans:

Some researchers believe that this city in the Nizhny Novgorod region should top the top 10 most polluted cities in the world. However, so far 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.

Given the number of inhabitants of this city, each has about one ton of the contents of deadly burial grounds. The level of such harmful chemical substances, like phenols and dioxides, exceeds the maximum allowable norms by seventeen million times! Naturally, having such characteristics for life, Dzerzhinsk is an endangered region - the death rate here exceeds the birth rate by 26 times. The industry in this polluted place continues to work only thanks to visiting 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 emitted into the Norilsk air:

Consistently hits the dirtiest cities in the world. Built about ten years ago, the treatment systems have improved the overall picture in some way. However, according to the 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 in the huge emissions of the largest metallurgical plant on the planet. The atmosphere, groundwater and soil of this region contain lethal doses of such dangerous elements as lead, cadmium, arsenic, zinc, copper and others. Norilsk has long been infamous as a zone of environmental problems - there is almost no vegetation, insects do not 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, however, for security reasons, the government allows a maximum of 14 days in the exclusion zone:

The city world famous for the explosion on nuclear power plant that thundered in April 1986. Radioactive elements were quickly spread by gusts of wind to nearby territories within more than one hundred and fifty thousand square kilometers. Residents of the city were hastily evacuated, and people are still not allowed to live here.

Studies by international organizations, including, according to WHO, plutonium, uranium, iodine, strontium and heavy metals in a concentration unacceptable for human existence. Chernobyl, as a zone of a vast nuclear catastrophe, has been among the most polluted cities in the world since 1986.

Dhaka (Bangladesh)

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

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

In fact, Dhaka is the most polluted city in the world, in terms of pollution in the literal sense. Given the warm climate of the country, waste pollution and the multiplication 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, there has been active development of deposits, mines are constantly poisoning the environment, including air, groundwater and soil. The defeat of the body by 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 like a lunar landscape with bare scorched earth, without grass, trees and bushes:

A small town, since 1922, has been regularly exposed to toxin emissions from working mines. The content of lead in the blood of local residents many times exceeds even the maximum allowable level. Vegetation in this region is regularly destroyed by acid rain, and the majority of local residents have pathologies that are incompatible with life.

Karabash (Russia)

Vegetation is almost completely absent, scorched earth, mountains of waste, orange cracked earth, acid rain. Lead, arsenic, sulfur and copper products are in the air

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

The pollution of this region began as early as 1822, when reserves of gold ore 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 ecological disaster. The fact is that in those days, during the development of deposits, they did not particularly care about the environmental aspect of the process and there were no treatment facilities as such. During its continuous work, the plant for the production of copper alloys, simply speaking, burned out all life in the vast territories around it. Thanks to the work of this industrial giant, in this area, acid rains, dense gas contamination of the atmosphere and the almost complete absence of vegetation have become frequent guests.

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

It's a real problem

The problem of total environmental pollution is becoming more acute every year. The number of the dirtiest cities in the world is steadily growing. Every year, not only underdeveloped cities from countries below the poverty line, but large, industrial regions get into the TOP ten dirty cities. Soil migration, air currents and cyclones spread harmful soils, air and groundwater for many kilometers, thus creating a global environmental problem for all inhabitants of planet Earth.

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 the reservoirs 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 it is forbidden to kill cows as sacred animals. They became 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 dwellers do not differ in love for order. All household waste accumulates near houses for years. In a hot climate, all this quickly rots and emits not the most pleasant aromas. Meanwhile, the citizens of Myanmar are very concerned about the construction of 12 coal-fired power plants. Their appearance will only aggravate 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 a small state simply does not have time to process it. Numerous waste plants also worsen the ecological state. Bangladesh has twice been on the brink of disaster. This happened for the first time when more than half of the country's population was poisoned by water with arsenic. Then the level of cancer and genetic diseases in children jumped sharply. A few years later, two oil tankers collided, and environmental pollution reached an unprecedented scale.

Afghanistan

There are many in this country years goes by war, because of which the problems of ecology are of little concern to anyone. Although the situation is already close to catastrophic. The only thing that is not heavily polluted here is the air. There are no factories, a lot of transport. But there is no sewerage and garbage disposal either. People pile waste in areas that often burn. Afghanistan has serious problems with drinking water, soils and groundwater.

Over the course of two decades African country became a garbage dump for Europe. 90 percent of the waste was brought here. Almost the entire share was in the capital of the country, Lagos. The city's population has tripled, which has worsened the situation. The factories of Lagos could not keep up with everything that was imported, and the garbage of citizens accumulated, polluting the rivers and streets. Now only 10 percent of the waste is recycled, the rest remains on the streets. Humid and hot climate, coupled with dirt, contribute to epidemics and hordes of rats.

A mountainous state, the level of pollution of which is visible from space. But it's not just humans that are to blame. Frequent earthquakes have destroyed most of the infrastructure, and cities simply do not have time to process waste. Dust and warehouses of plastic 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 taken out from here, but tourists do not give a damn about the top. Therefore, the authorities are thinking of seriously limiting the flow of climbers.

We are accustomed to complaining that our country has a very bad ecology, but in order to realize the full scale of the environmental catastrophe in the world, I propose to turn to serious studies of the problem of pollution.

I would like to draw attention to the study (carefully pdf file) . Since 2006, they have released an annual report on the most polluted places on the planet, the so-called "hot spots" of pollution. And, as it turned out, in order to kill the environment, it is not necessary to build a nuclear power plant. In general, the hotspots are industrial areas in developing countries, where seemingly "ordinary" substances such as aluminum, rubber and various pesticides are produced. However, the ecology and human life in these regions has been irreparably damaged. Drinking water there contains the entire periodic table, and the risk of getting cancer increases by 50%.

To describe the general situation, there is no other definition than ecological hell. Blacksmith made the list 10 dirtiest places on the planet. The list is presented in alphabetical order by country.

Sumgayit, Azerbaijan.


: 275 000

Pollutants: organic chemicals, oil, heavy metals.

Sources of pollution: petrochemical and industrial complexes.

This is the legacy left Soviet Union the environment of Azerbaijan. Stalin once boasted that he could fix the natural problems in Sumgayit. All this resulted in ignorance environmental issues region. Factories, during their operation, produced about 120 thousand tons of waste, incl. mercury every year. Many factories are not working now, but everything around has turned into one big industrial wasteland. And no one wants to take responsibility for what happened.

Kabwe, Zambia.




Number of potentially affected people: 255 000

Pollutants: lead and cadmium.

Sources of pollution: places of extraction and processing of lead.

In 1902 large deposits of lead were discovered in Zambia. Then Zambia was still called Northern Rhodesia and was a British colony. The colonists did not pay Special attention on how toxic lead mining is and how the production will affect the indigenous people of Zambia. Now the mines and factories are no longer functioning, but this does not improve the overall situation. Just think, the level of lead in the blood of children is 10-15 (!!!) times higher than the norms set by the US Environmental Protection Agency. When children were given a blood test, according to experts, many devices simply went crazy. However, there is hope that the situation will soon improve: the World Bank has provided $40 million for a project to clean up Zambia.

Vapi, India



: 71 000

Pollutants: chemicals and heavy metals.

Sources of pollution: industrial zones.

India's environment is much healthier than that of its neighbor China. And all because India is developing at a much slower pace. But the situation looks somewhat different for the cities that are located in the south of the belt of industrial zones, 400 kilometers long. For the people of Vapi, India's economic growth has come at a high cost: mercury levels in water are 96 times higher than the regulations, and heavy metals are present in the air. In a word, a disaster.

Sukinda, India




Number of potentially affected people: 2 600 00

Pollutants: hexavalent chromium and other metals.

Sources of pollution: mines for the extraction of chromium and factories for its processing.

If you've watched Erin Brockovich, then you know that hexavalent chromium is used to make stainless steel and to tan leather, and is also quite toxic and dangerous to inhale and swallow. One of the largest chrome quarries is located in Sukinda. 60% of drinking water contains twice as much chromium as allowed by international standards. 87% of deaths in the area are due to diseases caused by chromium poisoning. There are no attempts to improve the environmental situation.

Lingfeng, China





Number of potentially affected: 3 000 000

Pollutants: coal and particulate matter.

Sources of pollution: automotive and industrial emissions.

What you see in the photos is not a beautiful pre-sunset haze, it was smog. Against the background of cities in Shanxi province, London looks like a beautiful green oasis. Shanxi is the heart of China's coal belt, the mountains around Lingfeng are littered with coal mines, legal and illegal, and the air is filled with coal waste. You can not hang your freshly washed linen on the balcony - it will still turn black. Lingfen is considered the dirtiest city in China, and the World Bank claims that 16 of the 20 dirtiest cities in the world are located in China. One of the natives of Lingfeng delivered a sentence to his city: "This place is no good."

Tianjin, China.


Number of potentially affected: 140 000

Pollutants: lead and other heavy metals.

Sources of pollution: extraction and processing of lead.

On industrial cities(although there seems to be some others in China) Northeast China accounts for about half of the country's lead production. Due to backward technology and poor oversight, much of the waste from lead ends up in soil and water, from where it then enters the blood of indigenous children, which affects not only health, but also mental abilities. wheat in the area contains 24 times more lead than is required by Chinese standards, which, by the way, are much stricter than American ones. The fact that the Chinese government has begun to fight pollution is a significant plus for the country, since the fight is going quite well.

La Oroya, Peru.




Number of potentially affected: 35 000

Pollutants a: lead, copper, zinc, sulfur dioxide.

Sources of pollution: mining of heavy metals and their processing.

As you may have noticed, lead is the most common substance on this list. This is because its impact on children's health is truly devastating. La Oroya is a mining town in the Peruvian Andes, where 99% of children have an exorbitant amount of lead in their blood. And all this thanks to an American plant that has been polluting the city since 1992. In 1999, emissions were found to be three times higher than the regulations. Since then, emissions have been declining, but the effect of the plant's destructive impact will be noticeable for years to come, if not centuries. No waste disposal activities are planned.

Dzerzhinsk, Russia.




Number of potentially affected: 300 000

Pollutants: chemical and by-products, including sarin and VX gas.

Sources of pollution: the production of weapons during the Cold War.

The Cold War left many pollution hotspots throughout the former Soviet Union, but Dzerzhinsk is one of the hotspots. According to the local protection agency natural environment in the period from 1930 to 1998, about 300 thousand tons of the most dangerous waste, including the most dangerous neurotoxins, were dumped in Dzerzhinsk. The water was contaminated with dioxin and phenol at the level (think about it) 17 million times exceeding all allowable limits. Dzerzhinsk even entered the Guinness Book of Records as the dirtiest city on the planet. In 2003, the death rate exceeded the birth rate by 206%. Comments are superfluous.

Norilsk, Russia.




Number of potentially affected people: 134 000

Pollutants: particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, heavy metals, phenols.

Sources of pollution: mainly mining and processing of nickel and other metals.

Norilsk was founded in 1935 as a forced labor camp, since then life in the city has changed a lot. As scary as it sounds, it's for the worse. This city has become home to the world's largest metallurgical complex. Every year, about 4 million tons of cadmium, copper, lead, nickel, arsenic, selenium and zinc are emitted into the air. Air samples go off scale from the amount of impurities, and mortality from respiratory diseases is higher than in Russia as a whole. There is not a single living tree within a radius of 50 kilometers around the plant.

Chernobyl, Ukraine.


Number of potentially affected people: Initial estimate - 5.5 million, now the number is disputed.

Pollutants: radiation pollution.

Source of pollution: The Chernobyl accident.

Regarding the Chernobyl disaster, it seems that comments are superfluous. And yet... On April 26, 1986, 100 times more radiation was released into the air than Hiroshima and Nagasaki experienced. Today, an uninhabited exclusion zone stretches for 30 km around Chernobyl. Until now, Chernobyl is the largest industrial accident in the world, and for several tens of thousands of years we will observe its consequences.

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Unfortunately, little is being done to improve environmental situation in the most neglected areas. Environmental pollution has reached the level of such diseases as AIDS or malaria. According to experts, 20% of diseases on the planet are caused by the results of negative environmental impact. I would like people to realize that even if in some areas we can no longer save nature, but we can save human lives, we can prevent ecological catastrophe where it is still possible. And each of us can contribute to this.


You can follow the work on cleaning up the most polluted areas of the world here

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