ADDRESSING a news conference in Lahore on Saturday, Prime Minister Imran Khan, who has time and again claimed to be a green campaigner, announced a revolutionary plan to check smog that over the last few years has badly affected our people especially the elderly and children.
Realising urgency of the situation and that problem is local in nature, the PM announced to import Euro-4 emission standard oil now while setting target of importing Euro-5 standard oil by end of next year. Some of the Smog sources include vehicular pollution with poor fuel quality being used along with lack of pollution control technologies in our vehicles. Similarly industrial pollution, burning of hazardous municipal and industrial waste and brick kilns, that again use dirty fuel, further add to the problem. Addressing the fuel quality issue would be key to a long-term solution to our air pollution woes. The PM rightly took notice of obsolete technology being used in the country’s oil refineries by giving them a timeline of three years to improve the quality of oil they produce or face closure. This should have been done much earlier. Developed countries have been successful in mitigating or reducing the impact of road traffic by gradually improving fuel quality and design of motor vehicles. Anyway, we appreciate PM Imran Khan for taking this very important initiative that also includes shifting the auto industry to electric vehicles, hybrid beside providing financial assistance to brick kilns to switch to environmental friendly zigzag technology. This in fact is an investment in the future and Imran Khan will always be remembered for giving a direction to the country to effectively cope with environmental issues.
The plan announced by him will not only accrue financial benefits for the country but also save our present and coming generations from bad affects of pollution. It is important that PM personally monitor the implementation of this plan in letter and in spirit with deadlines also given to industries and brick kilns to shift to latest technology in the minimum possible time. It is also important to install sufficient number of monitoring devices in all the cities to monitor real time air pollution levels.