EVERY year, almost the entire Punjab province of Pakistan and the adjoining Indian region are engulfed with thick and obnoxious smog generally from November till February. Smog season means a repetitive flow of media reports like motorways shut down, flight cancelations, schools closed, fatal road accidents, and hospitals overwhelmed with patients struggling to breathe. Each year, reactive measures are taken like temporary bans on stubble burning, industrial shutdowns, green lockdowns, etc. Once the sky is clear, the issue fades, and the government machinery and media coverage shift to other pressing issues. Smog is not a seasonal annoyance rather it is caused by our year-round ignorance in the form of merciless emissions and environmental violations. These air pollutants build up and cause smog during winter when wind patterns become calm and persistent. There is a well-known saying, “Nature never accepts human waste and eventually retaliates with a vengeance,” which is best shown during smog season. Smog exacerbates respiratory issues like asthma and bronchitis; cardiovascular diseases; eye burning, and nausea etc. This is not only about human suffering rather smog also contaminates aquatic ecosystems, distresses crop yields, and ultimately influences country’s economy.
Recent media and institutional reports are highlighting a range of opinions and debates, with some experts attributing the smog to vehicular emissions and some experts pointing the cause of pollution to brick kilns and industrial emissions. Some researchers suggest that burning crop remnants produces smoke which is the main contributor to smog. Although each of these claims is valid, a conclusive determination about the major sources cannot be made until long-term data on smog constituents is available. At present, we are fighting an invisible enemy by relying on reactive measures and limited data. Given the province size, population density, and industrial activities, the sparse distribution of air quality sensors in Punjab is a significant obstacle to specifically claiming the nature of air pollutants, their atmospheric concentration, and making any precise forecasting. Furthermore, the limited number of air quality monitors currently installed in Lahore or other cities of Punjab are mostly set to measure only particulate matters, despite the fact that smog is a cocktail of various pollutants including nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, volatile organic compounds, surface ozone, and many others. Due to this limitation, an excessive area remains inadequately monitored, and making it difficult to assess the complete profile of smog constituents and their impacts on health and ecosystem.
Thanks to satellite technology which has revolutionized the climate change and environmental studies by offering global observations that supports mitigation measure, disaster preparedness and policy decisions. High resolution imageries and dataset retrieved from satellite provide a bird’s-eye view of the earth to monitor the extent of smog, concentration of different air pollutants, detecting the burning activities at agriculture fields, and many more. Combining AI technology with satellite data can undoubtedly accelerate the analysis of enormous dataset retrieved by satellites, detect pollution patterns, forecast the intensity and duration of smog, and identify the sources of pollutants.
For this reason, globally environmental protection agencies collaborate with their national space agencies to monitor environmental changes and address climate challenge issues. In Pakistan, the growing severity of environmental challenges including climate change / smog cannot be effectively tackled by any single institution rather it calls for an immediate and coordinated action by all relevant national institutions. To effectively combat these issues, a dedicated ‘National Environmental & Climate Change Task Force’ may be established to pool expertise, resources, and technologies from various institutions like SUPARCO , Federal and Provincial EPAs, Pakistan Meteorological Department, Ministry of Climate Change etc.
In order to bid goodbye to the “uninvited visitor” forever, a multifaceted approach comprised of short and long-term measures is inevitable. The short-term measures may include imposing the stringent pollution checks on factories, vehicles and construction sites; implementing crop residue management by offering farmers financial incentives or subsidized machinery for chopping and incorporating the residue in to the soil; and educating the public about the sources of pollution and their harmful effects on health.
Few long-term measures include development of mass transit infrastructure in urban areas; expansion of air quality monitoring network integrated with satellite-borne data; and the provision of sustainable crop residue management options to farmers such as biofuel conversion technologies to produce ethanol and strengthening climate diplomacy with India by adopting the successful model of “ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Framework for Transboundary Haze Pollution” which entails collaborative monitoring initiatives, technology sharing programs and coordinated emergency responses. We need to make significant strides to guarantee that we won’t be writing the same stories in the years to come if we stop considering smog as merely a seasonal crisis and instead consider it an environmental catastrophe. SUPARCO’s Satellite-based Active Fires Monitoring Portal at display in ‘Smog War Room’ of Environment & Climate Change Department-Punjab.
—The writer is contributing columnist.
