Punjab is again facing an environmental emergency and a smart lockdown of four days has been imposed in many districts. Although last week’s rains have eliminated it for the time being this has dropped Lahore from second to sixth or seventh number on International Air Quality Index. It is just a matter of a few more days, again in the coming few days poisonous smog will start prevailing and respiratory problems, coughs and different types 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 in public places. It is better to stay indoors in these areas and to wear a mask when going to the marketplace or other open areas in unavoidable circumstances. We all know that wearing a mask or imposing a lockdown is not a permanent solution to the issue. The need of the hour is long-term planning and implementation to eliminate smog. Closure of educational institutions is nothing but a waste of precious time for the students and in the case of markets and business centres, it also does not make any difference at all. Most of the people go outdoors to complete their everyday chores, they use public transport or private cars. The huge flow of cars, motorbikes, fleets of auto rickshaws, scooters, smoke-emitting vans and buses are rapidly adding up more to environmental pollution.
Moreover, in a densely populated city like Lahore, the number of trees is on the lower graph. Another possible reason for smog is said to be the smoke coming from India where farmers burn the straw on a very large scale after harvesting and this smoke increases the smog and air pollution heavily. The Punjab Government has imposed an environmental emergency in this regard but steps for a long-term solution have not been taken yet. The massive population is yet another intense and severe issue among other problems in our beloved country. If we say of Lahore only, it is the biggest city in Punjab with a mob of eleven million. At present seven million cars and six million motorbikes are registered in Lahore only. Hundreds of thousands of these vehicles including cars, buses motorbikes emitting smoke are making the environment more toxic and pernicious and auto rickshaws and buses are at the top of the list in this regard. This is how the smoke from vehicles adds up to air pollution along with smog in November and December.
Is strongly needed the government should impose a strict ban on all such vehicles immediately and take necessary measures to curb the smog. All vehicles emitting black smoke should be heavily penalised, especially motorbikes and auto-rickshaws should be strictly bound to follow this rule. The government should double the number of public transport vehicles, as the number of Metro buses and Orange line trains is lesser by the population. When public transport is sufficiently available, the majority of the people will use it. It will also reduce the number of private cars on the roads. Massive plantations should be done to reduce 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. To clean and purify the air and to control environmental changes, more trees and forests should be grown, special attention should be given to the cleanliness and hygiene of 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 a healthy 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 the 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 emissions and quit using polyethene and polypropylene (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 bans and heavy fines on setting fires in fields and stackyards. The 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 educational institutions, but industries markets and shopping areas are open. Whereas educational institutions use busses to commute. Here the government should play tricky and impose a ban on the use of private cars, and heavy fines 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 to this problem. This issue can be resolved through proper long-term planning and coordination 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, with the growing population and the passage of time fog and smoke can be seen on Margalla hills in Islamabad too and the visibility is also reducing gradually and that is quite alarming.
The writer is the Chairman of the Department of Sociology, at Quaid-i-Azam University
