Smog season in Lahore: how to keep your family hydrated when the air turns bad

Every year from late autumn into winter, Lahore's air fills with smog: a grey-brown haze of smoke, dust and exhaust that can hang over the city for weeks. Most of the advice is about the air: masks, closed windows, staying indoors. Water gets less attention, yet smog season is exactly when many families drink less than they need. This guide covers how much to drink, how to keep your stored water clean while the air is dirty, and how to make fewer trips outside for it.

Why smog season is a water question too

Smog season overlaps with the cooler months, and cooler weather turns down the body's thirst signal. People who drink easily in June can go most of a November day on two cups of tea. At the same time, closed windows, heaters and a scratchy throat dry you out in ways you do not feel as thirst.

Health advisories issued in Lahore during smog season usually include drinking plenty of water alongside masks and staying indoors. It is simple advice, and it is the part that is easiest to forget.

How smog makes you thirstier without you noticing

• Dry indoor air: with windows shut and heaters on, the air in a room gets drier, and you lose more water just by breathing.
• A sore or scratchy throat: many people get one in smog season, and a dry throat feels worse when you are short of water.
• Breathing through the mouth: a blocked nose means more mouth breathing, which dries you out faster.
• Less thirst in cool weather: the body asks for water less often when it is not hot, even though it still needs it.

How much water to drink during smog season

The amount does not drop because the weather does. An adult needs roughly 2 to 3 litres of drinking water a day, the same baseline as the rest of the year apart from the peak of summer. Children need a little less, around 1 to 1.5 litres. Our guide to how much water your home needs works through the numbers by household size.

Warm drinks count. Plain warm water, tea, soup and qehwa all add to the day's total, which helps when cold water is the last thing anyone wants. Very sweet drinks are better kept small.

Children and older family members

Children forget to drink when they are indoors and busy, and older people often feel thirst less. Put a glass of water beside them rather than waiting to be asked, and offer warm water or soup at meals. If someone in the family has a heart or kidney condition and has been told to limit fluids, follow their doctor's advice rather than any general figure.

Keep stored water clean when the air is dirty

Smog carries fine dust that settles on every surface, inside and out. Water in a sealed bottle is protected, but the outside of the bottle, an open dispenser and a jug left uncovered are not.

• Keep full bottles indoors and capped until they are needed, not on a balcony, roof or open veranda.
• Wipe the neck and cap of a new bottle with a clean cloth before lifting it onto the dispenser, and wash your hands first.
• Keep the dispenser's cover or bottle seat closed, and empty and wipe the drip tray every day.
• Cover jugs and glasses of water that stand in a room, especially near a window or door.
• Clean the dispenser's inside reservoir every few weeks, following the maker's instructions.

Fewer trips outside: let the water come to you

On the worst smog days the best advice is to stay indoors, and carrying a 19 litre bottle home from a shop is one trip you can drop. A delivery plan brings the bottles to your door on fixed days, so you are not caught short when the air is at its worst.

• Check which days we deliver to your area on our delivery areas page, and plan around them.
• Keep one full bottle in reserve, so a bad-air day never becomes a no-water day.
• Hand over the empty bottles at the door, so nobody has to go out to return them.

Simple habits for smog days at home

• Start the day with a glass of water, before tea.
• Keep a bottle or glass on your desk, beside the bed and in the kitchen, where you will see it.
• Drink a little at a time through the day rather than a lot at once.
• Use clean bottled or boiled water for drinking, cooking, tea and baby feeds.
• Wear a well-fitting mask when you go out, and keep windows closed when the haze is thick.

Water helps your body cope with dry air and a sore throat. It does not filter smog, so masks and staying indoors still matter.

When to see a doctor

We are a water company, not doctors. A cough that does not go away, wheezing, breathlessness, chest pain, or a child or elderly person who seems unusually unwell during smog season needs a doctor, not just more water. People with asthma or other breathing conditions should follow the plan their doctor has given them.

The bottom line

Smog season is easy to under-drink through: the weather is cool, the windows are shut and nobody feels thirsty. Keep the same 2 to 3 litres a day for adults, keep water where your family can see it, keep stored bottles indoors and wiped clean, and let deliveries save you a trip outside on the worst days.

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