Analysis: Tackling smog will take more than ‘lockdowns and prohibitions’

OVER the past many years, smog in Lahore has been a persistent challenge. The city regularly tops the charts for the worst air quality as soon as the winter arrives.
Even when the citizens of Lahore accepted hazardous air as their fait accompli, this year, pollution reached new peaks.
The Air Quality Index (AQI) has crossed 1,000 for the first time since the monitoring of smog started. On Sunday, the maximum AQI was 1,173.
According to the Pakistan Air Quality Initiative (PAQI), the pollution of PM2.5 — fine particulate matter in the air that causes the most damage to health — pollution increased by 25 per cent in 2024 compared to 2023. The average pollution level also went up by 23pc compared to last year.
Even in the face of the challenge of catastrophic proportions, experts say the government’s actions of enforcing ‘green lockdown’ and declaring smog a ‘calamity’ are inadequate.
Under the ‘green lockdown’, 11 pollution hotspots around Shimla Hill were identified, and construction activities, running commercial generators, motorcycle rickshaws, and open barbecue activities were banned after 8pm.
Abid Omar, the founder of PAQI, says similar prohibitions have been imposed in the past, sometimes on brick kilns and sometimes on plastic bags, but they haven’t worked.
“The government does not have the capacity to implement its policies,” he says, adding there are over 10,000 brick kilns across Punjab, and it’s “almost impossible” to monitor all of them.
Farmers across Punjab “can’t be practically stopped” from burning their stubble.
Environmental lawyer Ahmad Rafay Alam echoes similar views.
He says the government imposed a lockdown in only a few areas of Lahore when the issue is faced by the entire city, province and as well as region.
“Gujranwala, Faisalabad and other cities are also having air quality issues, but we don’t know what’s going on there due to lack of monitoring,” Mr Alam says.
The government amps up its efforts to control the smog when the haze starts getting denser in winter. But Mr Alama says the pro­blem is not seasonal as it “afflicts the city throughout the year”.
“It only gets more visible in winter due to cold weather conditions. It’s not a problem only for Lahore as it is being suggested.”
Practical solutions
The government can take inspiration from other cities around the world that faced the challenge of smog but overcame it by implementing several reforms.
During the COP28 UN Climate Change Conference in Dubai last year, the “success stories” of six cities — Accra (Ghana), Barran­q­u­illa (Colombia), Beijing (China), Jakarta (Indonesia), Kampala (Uganda), and New York City (USA) — were shared.
According to a UN Environment programme report, the administration in Beijing launched efforts to tackle air pollution in the 1990s.
In 2013, Beijing announced a five-year action under which a major overhaul was brought into the transport sector.
The city made it easier for the cit­izens to buy electric cars and made access to fossil fuel cars more difficult. The trucks were rerouted to use beltways and by­pass heavily populated areas. Other steps included the reintroduction of bike-sharing schemes and the extension of the subway system.
“The plan focused on limiting the use of coal-fired boilers, providing people with cleaner fuels to burn at home, and restructuring industry to reduce emissions,” the UN report adds.
As a result of these measures, cleaner air started becoming visible by the end of 2017.
The annual average PM2.5 concentration also came down by 35pc to 58 micrograms per cubic metre compared to 2013.
The concentration of sulphur dioxide also dropped by more than 93pc from 1998 levels, and nitrous dioxide fell by nearly 38pc, according to the UN report.
Policy continuity
PAQI’s Mr Omar says the government should make short-, medium- and long-term policies to control pollution.
He says 60pc of the air pollution is produced by emissions from vehicles running on petrol and diesel, while crop burning is responsible for 10pc.
He adds that fossil fuel vehicles run across the world, including in developed countries, but air pollution is not a serious problem there because of cleaner fuel.
“The easiest and cheapest solution is to upgrade oil refineries [and] the government has already paid these refineries for this upgrade.”
The upgrade from Euro-2 to Euro 4 or 5 would increase the cost by only Rs2 to Rs2.5, but it won’t pollute the air, Mr Omar estimates.
Another issue is the poor waste disposal mechanism due to which people burn trash. The government should take steps to properly dispose of this waste through landfill sites, he adds.
Mr Alam says solutions to the air quality problem are expensive and require consistency in policies for at least a decade.
He proposes constant monitoring to stop stubble burning, which takes place in the months of April-May and September-October.
There is also an issue of monitoring the air quality, says Mr Alam, adding the government only has five monitors.
He also points out that most of the environmental laws were drafted in the 1990s. They are now “outdated” as they don’t adequately address the challenges being faced today.
According to the law, the government can only impose fines on vehicles causing pollution. This alone is not enough, and there should be steps to reduce the overall usage of cars, Mr Alam says.
Published in Dawn, November 6th, 2024