City air too toxic to breathe

LAHORE:As the provincial metropolis remained trapped inside poisonous gases, the average Air Quality Index (AQI) of the City reached 518 causing serious health issues for the citizens.

The worsening situation of smog in big cities of Punjab like Lahore, Sialkot, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Multan and etc showed that presently the Punjab government has no solution to handle the situation while Met office has predicted rain in Lahore, other smog-hit areas in Punjab on Monday (today). The provincial capital on Sunday also ranked first in the list of world’s top 10 most polluted cities. Smog levels in different City areas were very high like at DHA Phase-8 it was 1391, at American Consulate it was 860, on Mall Road it was 806, at Askari 10 it was 725, at Town Hall it was 593, at Shimla Hill it was 475 and at Punjab University it was 486. The AQI of Multan was recorded at 527, Islamabad at 226 and Rawalpindi’s AQI has touched 248.

Due to toxic particles in the air, citizens were facing many diseases including difficulty in breathing, burning sensation in eyes, high rate of heartbeat and etc.It should be noted that due to increasing smog, the government has already banned entry of public at all parks, playgrounds, historical places, monuments, museums of Lahore till November 17 while hotels and markets were only allowed to open till 8pm.

However, the ban on closure of markets at 8.00 P.M. and on Sunday was not enforced and many markets like Township Main Bazaar, Green Town Main Bazaar, G-1 Market Johar Town, Ichhara, Islampura Bazaar and many other markets in residential areas were open. At many places, the scribe witnessed that different brands were ‘closed’ to deceive the authorities but when a customer comes, the staff present inside opened the glass door.

On the other hand, according to the Department of Meteorology, the minimum temperature of Lahore was 17.2°C and maximum was 27.2°C. They said continental air was prevailing over most parts of the country while a westerly wave was prevailing over upper parts of the country and likely to persist till Monday (today). They predicted that mainly dry weather was expected in most parts of the country, while cold in hilly areas during morning/night hours. However, cloudy weather with rain-wind/thunderstorm (light snowfall over high mountains) is likely in Gilgit-Baltistan, upper Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Kashmir and Potohar region. Partly cloudy weather with light rain/thunderstorm may occur at isolated place in northeast Punjab during evening/night. Smog was likely to prevail in Peshawar and surroundings, Islamabad and Punjab, while dense smog was also likely during morning hours.

Due to the deteriorating AQI across the province, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) advised the management of Commercial Plazas/Malls of the whole Punjab to install adequate number of efficient air purifiers in their plazas/malls to provide clean air to the visitors.The orders were issued by Dr Imran Hamid Sheikh, Director General, EPA Punjab in exercise of the powers conferred upon U/S 6(1)(o) of the Punjab Environmental Protection Act 1997.

EPA spokesperson said since October 1, around 468 brick-kilns and 45 industrial units have been demolished. Inspection of 6,820 kilns and 2,433 industrial units across Punjab was done since last month.

He said Environment department Punjab’s strict crackdown continued and 832 industrial units and 117 brick-kilns were sealed during the last 42 days while 223 FIRs registered to 832 units and 1,110 kilns across Punjab.He further said that the inspection of 34,449 vehicles emitting smoke while 11,939 challans and 1,956 vehicles were closed across Punjab.