LAHORE: Artificial rain will not be suitable for the province of Punjab to control smog, said sources in the meteorological sector.

They said the provincial caretaker government is in the process of drawing a conclusion that smog could not be controlled despite timely action against stubble burning, harvesting and ploughing in the fields. There is a need to redefine the factors playing a role in rising smog in the province, especially the provincial capital.

According to the sources, both the traffic mess and loose dust in and around the city roads were prime factors behind the smog. They said both respiratory depression and syndrome has risen up double to the level of last year.

They further added that artificial rain could only be suitable for Sindh due to droughts. A similar experiment was carried out by the government of former president Pervez Musharraf which had brought around 50 millimeter rain in Sindh back in 2001. However, no such effort has been successful in Punjab where the activity could bring only one millimeter rain on the last weekend. Mostly, they said, clouds appearing in Punjab are usually already full of moisture therefore there is no need of artificial rain there.

Sources in the Punjab government said the experiment of artificial rain was carried out simply to fulfill the ‘desire’ of caretaker chief minister Mohsin Naqvi, who was adamant to secure the claim of experimenting artificial rain to control smog. He was ready to spend whatsoever amount was required on the argument that the provincial government should not avoid it especially when it has had never hesitated in spending millions of rupees on holding festivals.

The sources further pointed out that a team of experts from Dubai was already waiting for a go-ahead over the last two weeks throughout its stay in the city. However, it was unable to perform due to the non-availability of clouds in the region.

They said soon the Met office informed the provincial government about the creation of clouds due to low pressure of wind on 16th of December, it gave a go-ahead to the experts for sprinkling of both Silver Iodide and Sodium Chloride on clouds. Accordingly, they sprinkled 48 flares from two separate guns to get less than one millimeter rain in the city.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023