An escalating winter threat

It got spookier on the eve of October 31st in Lahore and adjoining areas - not because it was Halloween; but because the winter smog returned to haunt the dwellers. Punjab experiences foggy conditions every year for an average of 10 to 25 days. However, the situation has exacerbated in recent couple of years where China/India-like smog conditions have been witnessed that have been a cause of many health issues.

The smog situation suggests that air standards for particulate matter (pollutant) with size 2.5 micron (PM2.5), oxides of nitrogen and sulphur are exceeded frequently in areas of Punjab. The reasons are several including trans-boundary smoke emitted from India due to stubble burning. Industrial units including those that use furnace oil high with sulphur contents, burning of agricultural residual and municipal waste and vehicular emissions are also key source of these pollutants. Other reasons include the dust from several development projects, traffic congestion etc.

The Environment Protection Department (EPD) of Government of Punjab has just come up with Policy on Controlling Smog 2017, which delineates the key causes and the immediate actions required to combat the menace. The illustration shows the action plan, which revolves around creating awareness, controlling crop burning, increasing forestation and plantation, and implementing fuel efficiency in automobiles. But don’t we all know this already?

BR Research reached out to Imran Khalid, Environmental Specialist at SDPI to take his view on the recently drafted policy. Terming the policy, a good starting point he highlighted a very systematic approach to deal with air pollution in the country: First step is to collect data and monitor the amount of pollution in the air to establish a baseline. This would mean checking levels before and after industrial, vehicular, municipal emissions.

Right now, there is no way of checking for the quality of air numerically, which the EPD has also accepted in its policy draft saying that data on air quality in the province is scant, and there is sporadic monitoring. The second step is to address the issue through existing laws. Khalid highlighted that legislatively the country has been doing great with multiple policies, strategies and standards on the paper; it is the implementation part that has been missing. Lastly, he emphasized on the need to enter into international agreement with India to monitor and take corrective measure to control the pollutants coming from that side.

The policy draft on smog has some key action plans. However, it’s lacking the need to actually lower the carbon emissions by controlling the rising number of cars on the road. While the policy talks about adoption of fuel efficient standards, and installation of catalytic converters, it fails to address the rising number of vehicles on the roads, which can be curbed by taxing roads usage, increasing petrol prices, increasing petroleum taxes etc.

China and India are two countries that continue to face severe smog hazard and extremely poor air quality. India brought in a short term odd-even car rationing rule back in January 2016 where the private cars with even and odd number plates were allowed only on alternate days.

China, on the other hand seems to be seriously looking to address the poor air quality in many of its provinces by restricting industrial activity. Its recent factory growth has slowed down amid smog-war, and it had announced earlier in August 2017, 20 cities throughout northern China that would cut small, breathable particles known as particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5) by at least 15 percent over the October 2017 to March 2018 period. Its Shenxi province - China’s biggest coal producing region - has just ordered the local government to further restrict industrial activity.

While it might be difficult to implement an odd-even rule in Pakistan as the public transport here is not as efficient as that of India, the country should take a lesson out of China’s book. Apart from the policy measures as highlighted in the drafted policy and the other recommendations mentioned above, there is also a need to restrict the number of power plant in Punjab. Coal power generation has been a recent addition to the poor air quality that will have long last repercussion on the environmental health. There’s no silver bullet, a lot of things have to work together and fast!