From Abid Usman
LAHORE: The Punjab government has finalised measures to fight the smog in the province, where the air quality situation becomes dangerously bad for the health of citizens during the winter season.
As the colder days approach, provincial government’s Senior Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb on Sunday said that all arrangements to tackle with smog have been made.
She said that the option of artificial rain will be implemented in the province in case of rise in smog lev-els, with a cost of Rs5 million to Rs7 million. Moreover, the crackdown against factories and vehicles producing toxic smoke will continue.
“Artificial rain will not be needed if we improve the environment through measures against smoke,” Aurangzeb said, urging the masses to report such vehicles, factories or instances of stubble burning on government helpline 1373.
As per a report published in media, Lahore ranked on top of the ten most polluted cities in the world on Saturday, with an Air Quality Index (AQI) of 186.
Data collected from IQ Air website revealed that Lahore was on top of the list, Delhi, India was on sec-ond with AQI of 172 and Dhaka, Bangladesh was third with AQI of 157.
The city witnessed a hazy day and many citizens complained about irritation in throat, burning of eyes and difficulty in breathing.
The citizens appealed Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz to ban all kind of ongoing construction activities in the city for the next two months as rising dust was the major source of PM2.5, which last year was named as fugitive dust by the provincial government’s Environmental Protection Department (EPD).
According to sources in the country’s Environmental Protection Agency claimed that use of substand-ard fuel such as plastic and rubber especially in cottage industry around Bund Road was contributing a lot in increasing the smog in Lahore.
The sources further added that vehicular pollution was also one of the major contributor of the smog but no strict action was being taken against smoke-emitting vehicles.
When contacted, EPA spokesperson said the department was taking all measures to combat smog. He said a large number of brick kilns were demolished while a ban was also imposed on the movement of uncovered sand and mud trollies across the province.
He claimed that traffic pollution, stubble burning and smog coming from India were the main reasons, which should be taken care effectively.
