Lahore again ranked as world’s most polluted city

LAHORE : The City once again topped the ranking of world’s most polluted cities here on Saturday, allegedly thanks to the ongoing internal rift between the government departments.

Environmentalists believed that the Air Quality Index (AQI) of the city was being deteriorated by traffic jams, free movement of smoky vehicles, ineffectiveness of Environment Protection Department (EPD) against smoke-emitting factories burning substandard fuel and carbon users.

Sources in EPD said that a rift was ongoing between the District Officer (Environment) office with the EPD’s Special Squads due to which the benefit is going to the polluters.

Officers of Special Squad claimed that out of 24 pyrolysis plant in Lahore not even a single plant was visited by District Officer (Environment) Lahore and his staff till date while District Officer (Environment) Lahore said that he sealed these plants but didn’t demolish any because demolishing any industrial unit didn’t come under his preview as per law.

Similarly, the special squad claimed that the District Officer office didn’t identify even a single carbon storage area whereas the special squads seized a huge stock of carbon to be used as a fuel by steel and pyro industries.

Officers of Special Squads alleged that the de-sealing methods of District Officer (Environment) Lahore were also compromised that’s why Deputy Commissioner (DC) Lahore constituted a third-party validation committee while the District Officer (Environment) said that he was sealing industries as per law while the de-sealing was the prerogative of Judicial Water and Environment Commission.

To a question about the allegations of installation of substandard scrubbers by industrial units, District Officer (Environment) said that those who installed scrubbers also provided the certificates of authorised private laboratories so he has to accept them.

He said if the EPD thought the certificates were wrong then the department should check the laboratories and cancel their No Objection Certificates (NOCs) for issuing wrong certificates regarding equipment.

On the other hand, data collected from IQAir revealed that Lahore, Pakistan stood on top of the world’s most polluted cities with an AQI of 192, Dhaka, Bangladesh was second with an AQI of 189 and Tashkent, Uzbekistan was third with an AQI of 182.

The rest of the cities included Delhi, India (AQI 179), Kolkata, India (AQI 174), Baghdad, Iraq (AQI 167), Krakow, Poland (AQI 161), Mumbai, India (AQI 158), Karachi, Pakistan (AQI 157) and Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan (AQI 157).

Meanwhile, MET office said that continental air was prevailing over most parts of the country.

They predicted that cold and dry weather was expected in most parts of the country, while very cold in northern areas and north Balochistan.

They further predicted that foggy conditions were likely to persist over plain areas of Punjab and upper Sindh during night and morning hours while frost was likely to occur at isolated places in Pothohar region during morning hours.

Saturday’s lowest minimum temperature was recorded at Skardu where mercury dropped down to -09°C while in Lahore it was 7.2°C and maximum was 24°C.