Skip to main content

Smog blamed on Indian farmers begins to hit Lahore

LAHORE: Moderate smog has started developing in Lahore because of the lowering minimum temperature, humidity and calm wind at night that is allowing the contributing pollutants, being generated mostly by Indian Punjab farmers by burning massive crop residue, to penetrate the bordering areas.

“We have already taken adequate steps to prevent local contributions to smog, and are ready to combat those from Indian Punjab,” said Environment Protection Secretary Salman Ejaz on Wednesday.

He contradicted reports suggesting development of hazardous level smog in Lahore. “This is false as our authentic data shows much lower levels that are not dangerous at all as yet,” he said.

Chief Meteorologist in Lahore Sahibzad Khan said there was no smog. It was merely smoke and haze, he said, indicating chances of rain and strong westerly winds on Saturday and Sunday.

This would provide relief, though temporary, against smog or whatever, he said.

Human rights group Amnesty International earlier said that the Air Quality Index in Lahore had reached 484 at 10am, adding that the threshold for hazardous level of air quality was 300.

It blamed the Punjab government for exposing people to hazardous air risks in violation of their human rights to life and health.

Smog was witnessed in the bordering areas of Lahore and those in the south along the canal on Wednesday morning.

Haziness, and nose and eye irritation was a clear indication of the beginning of the phenomenon which is pestering Lahore and other Punjab cities in October and November for the past few years.

The main cause is stated to be the burning of crop residue mainly by Indian Punjab farmers. Smog that develops as a result causes worst health threatening conditions in the Indian side up to Delhi.

The Environment Protection Department (EPD) observatory at the Met department’s Jail Road observatory on Wednesday recorded 128 AQI (Air Quality Index) at 12.50pm.

The AQI at Wagah was 280. According to the EPD smog policy, AQI ranging between 101 and 200 indicates slight, 200 to 300 moderate and 400 to 500 hazardous air pollution.

Mr Salman Ejaz said Punjab did not witness smog during most parts of the current month because of extended monsoons and some strong westerly weather systems that pushed back the pollutants from the fields of Indian Punjab.

“NASA Satellite pictures are showing huge crop residue burning in the east Punjab cities Amritsar and Jalandhar. The local contribution is 20 per cent. And we are not having full impact of the smog causing pollutants from the Indian side because of the (favourable) wind direction,” he said.

Published in Dawn, October 31st, 2019



from The Dawn News - Home https://ift.tt/2Wta47o
via IFTTT
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

IT ministry forms panel to review social media rules

ISLAMABAD: While uproar against the new rules to regulate social media continues from various segments of society, including parliamentarians, the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) and civil society, the information technology ministry on Friday formed a committee to review the rules. The federal cabinet approved the rules on Feb 11, but later after opposition from various quarters, including companies that manage different social media platforms, the prime minister announced that a fresh consultation process would be launched over the Citizens Protection (Against Online Harm) Rules 2020. The committee formed by the IT ministry is headed by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority Chairman Amir Azeem Bajwa while its members are Eazaz Aslam Dar, additional secretary of IT; Tania Aidrus, member of the Strategic Reforms Imple­mentation Unit, Prime Minister Office; and Dr Arslan Khalid, focal person on digital media at the PM Office. Federal Minister for Human Rights Dr Shireen Ma
Post a Comment
Read more

Young girl’s tragic story makes her symbol of Yemen war

Buthaina Mansur al-Rimi’s life has changed drastically since last year — orphaned in Sanaa, the little girl controversially ended up in Saudi Arabia for medical care and has just returned to Yemen’s capital. Her entire immediate family was wiped out in an air strike by a Saudi-led coalition that backs Yemen’s government, using an explosive device Amnesty International says was made in the US. Images of Buthaina’s rescue and a picture of her swollen and bruised at a hospital trying to force open one of her eyes with her fingers were beamed worldwide. That international fame saw her become something of a propaganda pawn in the war between Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels and Saudi media. “I was in my mother’s room with my father, sisters, brother and uncle, the first missile hit, and my father went to get us sugar to get over the shock, but then the second missile hit, and then the third,” she says. “And then the house fell,” adds the little girl, who says she is eight. It was the
Post a Comment
Read more