Until a few months ago, Samia Gul could kick, dribble and manoeuvre a football like a star player. The 12-year-old, who hails from Pakistan’s “football district” Lyari in southern Karachi, wanted to join Pakistan’s national women’s football team.

But her dream was shattered late last year when she was diagnosed with asthma. Doctors told her she had to stop intense running.

Gul is one of tens of thousands of Pakistanis who develop health conditions like asthma every year. Health experts say a key factor, especially in major cities, is ever-increasing air pollution.

Karachi, the country’s largest city and commercial capital, home to nearly 20 million people, is the fourth most polluted city in the world, according to Swiss air quality technology company IQAirPakistan. Besides Karachi, Pakistan’s second-largest city Lahore, northwestern Peshawar, Rawalpindi and textile hub Faisalabad are highly polluted.

Gul is heartbroken that the pollution in her city has taken a toll on her dream of becoming a professional footballer.

“I was taking part in a routine practice match [a few months ago] when I felt difficulty breathing. I knelt to the ground in an attempt to settle down but soon realised I could not breathe properly. I fell to the ground, and was rushed to the hospital, where the doctors told me ‘a bad news’,” a visibly dejected Gul said. “It seemed as if the world was over for me when my doctor told me that I could not play football [because of asthma], at least in the near future.”

But this was not her only problem.

The lack of a proper, well-run transport system affects the majority of citizens in Pakistan’s big cities like Karachi. But it takes a particular toll on women, who face regular sexual harassment.

To travel to the football ground, Gul used public transport, which took about half an hour. In this short time she was often harassed by boys at the bus stop or on her way to the ground and back home.

Read the full article about poor urban planning at Eco-Business.