PUNJAB is again facing an environmental emergency and a smart lockdown of four days has been imposed in many districts. Although the last week rains have eliminated it for the time being and this has dropped Lahore from second to sixth or seventh number on International Air Quality Index. It is just a matter of few more days, again in coming few days poisonous smog will start prevailing and the respiratory problems, cough and different type of allergies of ENT and eyes will be spreading consequently in Lahore, Qasur and their suburbs. Approaching winters will add severity to it all. The government of Punjab has not only ordered the closure of educational institutions but has also declared it mandatory to wear a mask at public places. It is better to stay indoor in these areas and to wear mask when go to marketplace or other open areas in unavoidable circumstances. We all know that wearing a mask or imposing lockdown is not a permanent solution to the issue. The need of the hour is long-term planning and its implementation to eliminate smog. Closure of educational institutions is nothing but wastage of precious time of the students and in case of markets and business centres it also does not make any difference at all. Most of the people go outdoor to complete their everyday chores, they use public transport or private cars. The huge flow of cars, motor bikes, fleets of auto rickshaw, scooters, smoke emitting vans and buses are rapidly adding up more to the environmental pollution.
Moreover, in a densely populated city like Lahore, the number of trees is on the lower graph. Another possible reason of smog is said to be the smoke coming from India where farmers burn the straw on very large scale after harvesting and this smoke increases the smog and air pollution heavily. The Punjab Government has imposed the environmental emergency in this regard but steps for long-term solution have not been taken yet. Massive population is yet another intense and sever issue among other problems in our beloved country. If we say of Lahore only, it is the biggest city of Punjab with a mob of eleven million. At present seven million cars and six million motor bikes are registered in Lahore only. Hundreds of thousands of these vehicles including cars, busses motor bikes emitting soke are making the environment more toxic and pernicious and the auto rickshaws and busses are at top of the list in this regard. This is how the smoke of vehicles adds up to air pollution along with smog in the month of November and December.
It is strongly needed that the government should impose strict ban on all such vehicles with immediate effect and take necessary measures to curb the smog. All vehicles emitting black smoke should be heavily penalised, especially motor bikes and auto rickshaws. The government should double the number of public transport vehicles, as the number of Metro buses and orange line trains is lesser in accordance with the population. When public transport will be sufficiently available, majority of the people will use it. It will also reduce the number of private cars on roads. Massive plantation should be done to reduce the air pollution. It is also important to pay attention to the extensive trash heaps spread all over the city.
Effective and immediate steps should be taken to control smog and air pollution, closure of educational institutions only will not work. In order to clean and purify the air and to control the environmental changes, more trees and forests should be grown, special attention should be given to the cleanliness and hygiene of the public places and all carbon emitting vehicles should be heavily fined. If we work together on all these aspects, we can see massive changes in a very limited time. Important factors including unnecessary use of vehicles, quitting health lifestyle, use of multiple gadgets and burning plastic and other garbage, setting trees on fire, excretion of poisonous industrial wastes and climatic changes across the globe are some of the major factors of air pollution across the globe. If we individually take healthy steps to improve our lifestyle like preferring to walk instead of using vehicles, planting more trees, gardens and forests to reduce air pollution. We may maintain the mechanics of our vehicles to control carbon emission, quit using polyethylene and poly propylene (plastic), this will bring noticeable change in the environment. Another important step to be taken by the government in this regard is to impose strict ban and heavy fine on setting fire in fields and stackyards. Use of machinery should be reduced and one should prefer to work manually.
Being a responsible citizen, it is the responsibility of every Pakistani to play his role and cooperate with the government to reduce air pollution and smog. A thought-provoking aspect of this lockdown is that the government has closed the educational institution, but industries markets and shopping areas are open. Whereas educational institutions use busses to commute. Here the government should play tricky and should impose ban on the use of private cars and heavy fine on smoke emitting vehicles, so that the unbridled rush and flow of traffic can be reduced. At the same time fixed time slots should be allotted to the industries that release smoke and chemical waste so that they can manage the safe and proper disposal of it. Air pollution and toxins can be controlled up to a large extent through these steps.
In my opinion closure of educational institutions is not a wise solution of this problem. This issue can be resolved through proper long-term planning and co-ordination of all related institutions. Though Islamabad is far better than Lahore and many other cities of the world in terms of population and environmental conditions, but with growing population and passage of time fog and smoke can be seen on Margalla hills Islamabad too and the visibility is also reducing gradually and that is quite alarming.
—The write is Founder and Ex- Chairman School of Sociology, Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad.
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views expressed are writer’s own.
