Assessment and Analysis of Public Perception of Environmental Pollution A Case Study of Lahore

This study carried out an assessment and analysis of the perception of public about the extent of environmental pollution in the city of Lahore. The city has been ranked as one of the most polluted cities globally every year from October to December over the past five years thereby posing health challenges for the public due to smog. The study conducted a survey of 120 respondents from different income and age groups. Multinomial logistic regression technique was being used in order to see the impact of income, age and gender on an individual’s Willingness To Pay (WTP) in order avoid pollution while the method of contingent valuation was used to measure the WTP. The survey results showed that 94% of the respondents were concerned about the deteriorating environmental quality and expressed WTP a proportion of their income for better environmental quality. Results from regression analysis showed that there was a high probability of WTP up to five percent of their household income in a month, irrespective of their age and income. The study suggests the government to promote public transport network, improve the collection and monitoring of air quality data and take the WTP into consideration while designing tax policies.