Lahore has only recently got the unwanted distinction of having the worst air quality on the planet. And with an Air Quality Index score of 244 on Saturday night, it achieved that unwanted distinction. At the moment, it is not the worst in the world, but it is up there with the worst, with only Dhaka in Bangladesh and New Delhi in India being worse off. The excuse of stubble burning by East Punjabi farmers should not disguise the fact that major contributors to Lahore’s pollution include burning of fuel by vehicles, by brick kilns and by factories.
Controlling stubble burning is something the Indian government can control, not the Pakistani. However, the Pakistan government can, and should, take initiatives to reduce air pollution caused by vehicles. Though the present PTI government has been in office for well over two years, apart from the Zigzag Technology in brick kilns, it can point to few ‘green’ initiatives. The ‘clean and green Pakistan’ slogan has been just that: a slogan. The ‘billion-tree’ tsunami might win brownie points abroad, but there have been enough problems with the programm to make it doubtful if it will actually make a difference. One of the most important tools identified for combatting air pollution has been the introduction of electric vehicles. However, there are powerful lobbies preventing the issuing of the cabinet –approved EV policy, and not only has the PTI done nothing about overcoming it, but is guilty of lending too ready an ear to the car manufacturing lobby. The government needs to attract qualified professionals in a number of fields, and put them all to work to handle a problem that is merely the tip of the climate-change iceberg (and there must be no mistake: the urban pollution problem is merely part of the entire climate-change issue).
The government needs to take a more proactive approach to this problem, which may be tough, but is not insoluble. Such cities as Beijing prove that proper policies can reverse the tide of pollution. Though the havoc it wreaks is through natural weather phenomenon, it is but natural, but manmade, and as it results from poor or absent policy, just so can it be reversed by proper policy. That, it seems, the government is unable to formulate.
