LAHORE: The Environment Protection Department (EPD) has ‘revealed’ a three-month record of its anti-smog activities from July to September.

It claims through figures in the document that it has taken several steps to curb smog this year.

The single-page report by EPD gives statistics over a three-month time frame where they have taken action against smoke emitters and imposed fines, sealed them, or issued them notices.

It claims as many as 484,279 trees have been planted during this period.

Additionally 1,153 notices have been issued to smoke-emitting industrial units (323 in July, 399 in August and 431 in September) while 255 units sealed (79 in July, 99 in August, and 77 in September).

Nearly 4,200 notices were issued to smoke-emitting brick kilns (963 in July, 1,357 in August and 1,880 in September) and 153 kilns sealed (40 in July, 53 in August, and 60 in September).

The EPD claims that it has sent 233 letters to various stakeholders about open burning of garbage, including letters to the government and the waste companies.

The report also speaks of fine imposed on smoke-emitting vehicles.

A total of 700 meetings have also been held with local brick kiln owners and 38 smog control committees have been formed at tehsil level.

Speaking to Dawn, Naseemur Rehman Shah, spokesperson and a director of the EPD, says it is important to see that the sealed kilns operating on the old style would not be allowed to function even after the smog season is over.

“The ban on smoke-emitting kilns is from Oct 20 to Dec 31, 2018, he says, adding the EPD is facing ‘resistance’ as kiln owners have got cases registered against the department in court.

“The new zigzag technology uses 30 per cent less fuel compared to the old model; it also helps bake bricks sooner. We have already had about 30 kilns converted to the new approved style.”

AQ READINGS NOT MADE PUBLIC: However, the department could not come up with an answer as to why the readings of the AQ were not being made public.

While Shah explained that this was because at most times the air quality measuring machines they had were not working properly, earlier Director General Syeda Malika had said that this was because of ‘internet issues’. However the last readings of AQ were uploaded on Sept 2, 2018.

Published in Dawn, October 18th, 2018