Killing us softly

Rina Saeed Khan

For the citizens of Lahore, the arrival of December means the start of the infamous fog that blankets the city each year in winter. For almost two to three weeks, the city is smothered by a thick haze of mist and air pollution which causes respiratory illnesses, closes down the airport and makes travelling within the city a nightmare.

The fog is a result of the worsening air quality in Lahore, mainly as a result of increasing vehicular and industrial emissions. This fog, or more appropriately smog, is actually present the year round over the city, but it is most visible in winter, when the lack of rain worsens the pollution and the mist holds pollutants in suspension.

Karachi at least has its sea breeze to clear the city’s air on a regular basis whereas Lahore has to wait for a heavy downpour. It is the fine particulates and lead suspended in the air, which cause the most acute health problems.

The major source of fine particulate pollution is vehicles, followed by fossil fuel combustion in factories and emissions from power plants, according to a report released by Pakistan’s Federal Ministry of Environment in 2006. According to this report, urban air pollution in Pakistan annually caused around 22,700 deaths, including those of 700 children.

The levels of air pollution in Lahore are now estimated to be 20 times higher than the guidelines set by the World Health Organization (WHO). A survey in Lahore carried out by four major teaching hospitals in 2004 found that vehicular pollution was responsible for at least 70 percent of ear, nose and throat diseases. Doctors are also concerned about rising levels of lead in the blood caused by air-borne particulates.

Lahoris have despairingly seen the steady deterioration of air quality in their beloved city, once known for its shade covered roads and parks galore. Over the years, many trees have been cut down to make way for roads and further development. Indeed, Lahore’s Mall Road, once known as the Thandee Sarak, has seen many of its century old trees cut down in recent years to make way for traffic.

Urban planners now have their eyes on Lahore’s tree-lined Canal Road - every time they make a new underpass, they cut down dozens of mature trees and pave the green belts with concrete. They have already damaged large portions of the canal under the guise of ‘development’. Instead of protecting the remaining green belts in the city, they are bent on degrading its environment.

They seem to think that by widening this main road which runs through the city, they can solve the traffic congestion that is currently being caused by all the extra cars on the roads of Lahore. The last provincial Government came very close to cutting down around 1,850 mature trees lining the canal in an attempt to widen the road and turn it into an expressway.

It was only thanks to the efforts of a group of concerned citizens, comprising artists, architects, lawyers and environmentalists that the project was stopped. They started a movement called the Lahore Bachao Tehreek and came out on the streets to protest against the project and demanded a proper Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) in keeping with the Pakistan Environment Protection Act of 1997.

Incidentally, according to this law, all large development projects (including roads, bridges, housing estates) must conduct EIAs. These are environmental studies that are done to protect human health, biodiversity, and property from any damage that might occur as a result of development.

The Lahore Bachao Tehreek pointed out that cutting down the trees would destroy the green areas around the canal and result in increased noise and air pollution. There would be no trees to absorb the toxic emissions from the thousands of cars that travel along the canal each day. They calculated that currently mature trees on the canal are absorbing 140lbs of pollutants daily. If the number of trees to be cut was 1,850, pollution increase would amount to 259,000 lbs daily, without calculating the increase due to the volume of traffic.

The Lahore Bachao Tehreek also predicted that the cutting of so many trees would result in worsening smog in winter, which would result in increased accidents while in summer the ‘heat island effect’ would take place, leading to a temperature increase of two to three degrees in the immediate vicinity.

Perhaps their main point was the fact that widening a road is not the answer to controlling traffic when more and more cars are expected to use the very same road.

The answer lies in the development of a proper public transportation system and improving traffic conditions throughout the city.The Dawn