City chokes as smog torture persists

LAHORE:As the visibility reduced further, the provincial metropolis continued to remain on top of the world’s top ten most polluted cities with an AQI of 1591.

The dense fog and smog engulfed the city on Thursday and reduced visibility further resulting in causing serious inconvenience for the citizens. As per the data collected from IQAir, the AQI of the city in the morning was 1591 while in night it was 1459.

The spike in the city’s AQI showed that the closure of educational institutions and 50pc online work in private institutions was not giving the desired results to get the city out of the grip of the smog.

Heavy fog and smog was also witnessed in several other cities of the province due to which major highways were closed for all types of traffic due to low visibility. However, the data shared by the spokesperson of the EPA, showed that the average AQI of Lahore was 364, it was 408 at Town Hall, 330 at Shimla Hill and 355 at Punjab University. Over the deteriorating condition of the AQI in Punjab, WWF-Pakistan warned of escalating smog emergency and appealed to the prime minister for swift action. It also demanded immediate removal of high-emission vehicles from the roads to curb the current crisis.

“It is now clear that toxic smog has reduced air quality to hazardous levels, posing a threat to public health, the economy, and the environment. Inaction on this issue will exacerbate the current crisis, and lead to further health complications, economic losses and environmental degradation,” stated a letter of WWF-Pakistan to Prime Minister and Chairperson of the Pakistan Climate Change Council Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday. The letter outlined immediate and long-term measures to control the smog crisis, which has engulfed several cities across the country. WWF-Pakistan called for declaring smog a ‘national health emergency’ with immediate effect.

It urged the PM to issue necessary orders to immediately remove high-emission vehicles from the roads to curb the current crisis. The organisation called for the immediate closure of polluting industries and emphasised the need to extend the regulations of the ‘Green Lockdown’ to other areas of Lahore and to other highly-polluted cities. It also called for halting construction activities during the peak of the smog season, including the closure of brick kilns.

Commenting on the smog issue, Hammad Naqi Khan, Director General, WWF-Pakistan, said that the government must take immediate, bold and decisive actions to address this emergency. “In the long run, there is a need to promote electric vehicles, enhance sustainable development models, segregate industrial zones, expand the mass transit network and switch to renewable energy sources,” he added.

Proposing long-term measures, WWF-Pakistan suggested for transition to Euro V or Euro VI fuel quality standards and accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) in Pakistan, especially two and three-wheelers, to significantly reduce vehicular emissions which are the leading contributor to fine particulate pollution. It also stressed on the expansion of the public transport network in metropolitan centres, and urged the government to scale green financing, subsiding alternatives to burning of crop residue. Low-cost air quality sensors measure pollutants like PM1.0, PM2.5, NO2, SO2, and O3 and can help identify pollution hotspots across the country. WWF-Pakistan strongly recommends the widespread use of these sensors to monitor air quality to inform smog-control measures.

“The urgency of the situation cannot be overstated, as it directly impacts the health of millions of Pakistanis”, the letter stated. Senior Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb has instructed the PHA and other departments to plant one and a half million saplings and trees in the provincial capital to increase the tree cover.

The minister also included this task in the green master plan of the city while the PHA’s “Lungs of Lahore” project was also been made a part of the green master plan. It has been decided to make "Green Master Plan" for the first time in the city of Lahore, a short, mid and long term plan has been made to increase the tree cover of Lahore. One crore saplings will be produced in PHA nurseries, five lakh saplings will be grown by PHA.