Amid the many emergencies being declared in the country, this one has to be a serious one. Health is no joke, and pollution is a reality that needs to be addressed rather urgently. It’s beyond the smoggy blur; the air quality of most of the large cities in Pakistan is a mess and Lahore tops the charts. While the incidence of ‘smog blanketing the city’ hasn’t been a frequent occurrence this winter, the air quality of the city continues to be a threat to public health. Compare Lahore’s average ranking of 336 AQI for December 2018 to a little over 160 AQI of Bangkok that forced the officials to close more than 400 public schools in Thai capital recently for a couple of days.
No city in Pakistan meets the environmental standards for safe air quality. The country along with India and Bangladesh has seen the world’s steepest rise in air pollution since 2010 according to Health Effects Institutes’ (HEI) report, State of Global Air 2018. This space has talked about smog many times to create awareness. Let’s now look at what Punjab government is actually doing to control the menace.
Thankfully, the present government has shown keen interest in environmental issues. While recently talking to BR Research, Ali Abbas – Director Laboratories EPD, the government this time around has been able to control the situation by sealing brick kilns running on conventional technology. Moreover, these players have been incentivised to move to Zigzag technology that can minimise the effects of coal burning as well as reduce the fuel consumption. The government is not only promoting urban tree plantation to reduce carbon emissions and counter the effects of global warming, but also taking steps to control industrial pollution. According to Ali Abbas, the government has sealed polluting industries like steel, allowing only those with proper SOPs The EPD has issued advisory note to the sugar industry to comply with environmental standards.
Textile industry has been asked to set-up and/or upgrades their water treatment plants. On the transport side, the government is running its vehicular emission drive reportedly. When asked about coal powered projects and their emissions, BR Research was told that the largest coal power project in Punjab at Sahiwal is a good technology plant with emissions within limits.
Other than that, what should not go unnoticed is that monitoring air pollution is key to reducing its prevalence and health impact. Recently, it has been seen that persistent poor air quality reports and news has made the Indian authorities pay some heed to the air pollution of Delhi.
At a recent seminar/webinar on air quality, health and industry by the Pakistan Business Council’s Centre of Excellence in Responsible Business (CERB), Abid Omar of Pakistan Air Quality Initiative (PAQI) highlighted that Pakistan is one of the few countries that does not actively monitor air quality, and monitoring was one of the five policy recommendations he made to combat air pollution. It entails comprehensive nationwide air quality monitoring, establishment of emission control zones around the large cities, and capacity building of Environment Protection Agency.
The other four recommendations included post-industrial combustion controls that reduce sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and particulate emissions at power stations and in large-scale industry; and advanced emissions standards in industries like brick kilns, iron, steel, cement factories, glass production, chemical industry, etc. Then comes crop residue management with strict enforcement of bans on open burning, and urban waste management and dust control.
And finally, improved emissions standards in the transport sector through better quality fuels, enforcement of penalties, improved public transport infrastructure, and rationalisation of cargo transport by restricting oil and gas transport to pipelines, and goods transport to trains.
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