LAHORE: Eleven air quality monitoring stations will be made operational throughout Punjab this month and three of them have already been turned operative – one each at Gujranwala, Multan and Faisalabad – and the remaining eight will be put up in Lahore.

This was stated by Adviser to Prime Minister on Climate Change Ameen Aslam at a press conference here on Monday.

Flanked by Punjab Chief Minister’s spokesman Shahbaz Gill, he said one of the units would be set up on Burki Road (close to Indian border in east of Lahore) to monitor smog coming to Pakistan from across the border.

He claimed that Chief Minister Usman Buzdar also approved a fund of Rs250 million for the introduction of “zigzag technology” in brick kilns in the province, which can help reduce emission up to 60 per cent.

Minister says Rs250m approved for zigzag technology at kilns

A decision to the effect, he said, was taken at a meeting of the chief minister with the brick kilns owners, in which they assured cooperation, which includes closure of their units from Oct 20 to Dec 31 for tackling the smog problem. The minister said: “The government has recently sealed 53 smoke-emitting brick kilns and stopped construction of another 153 being built on older technology. It is also monitoring industries to mitigate the problem and pushing them for taking measures to preempt the issue. A meeting [today] in the provincial metropolis, chaired by the chief minister, approved a fund for zigzag technology (a Nepalese version) in brick kilns and money for purchase of air quality monitoring systems. On top of it, smog committees have also been constituted at tehsil level which would monitor the situation and control smoke-emitting units in their areas.”

He said the Punjab government would also set up smog desks in hospitals where doctors and specific medicines would be readily available round the clock to deal with the patients suffering from smog-related problems.

He listed four factors – brick kilns, vehicular and industrial emissions and crop burning – causing smog problem. However, he feigned ignorance about individual contribution of these factors, saying that experts have identified these causes jointly responsible for the problem.

Regarding cross-border factors contributing to smog, as commonly believed, he said that was being monitored through satellite. “The federal government has inducted Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (Suparco) for satellite monitoring of smog travel. Negotiations were also under way with India at the foreign office level to learn from their experience and share our version of the problem.”

The commission would also see how much crop burning was happening on this side of border.

Published in Dawn, October 16th, 2018