Lahore

Better Off Together!

The Punjab Government’s recent initiative to engage in diplomatic dialogue with its counterparts in India is a welcome move.

By Dr. S. Shafiq ur Rehman | December 2024

Better Off Together!
Yet another annual recurrence of smog has engulfed 18 districts of the Lahore, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, and Multan divisions of the Punjab province of Pakistan. The air quality index (AQI) of Lahore is reported as ‘Severely Hazardous’, which, on occasion, has reached four times the critical value of 300-350 and is classified as ‘Hazardous.’ On the other side of the border, New Delhi is the worst affected city in India, along with Noida, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Bhiwadi, Patna, Rohtak, Muzaffarnagar, and Sonipat. The usual administrative measure taken to lower the impact includes the temporary closure of schools, mandatory public use of masks, and a temporary ban on the entry of heavy vehicles into cities. Such air quality not only disrupts the flow of vehicular traffic but also exposes the public to respiratory diseases such as asthma, cough, breathing difficulties, eye irritation, etc.

For almost a decade, major cities on both sides of the Pakistan-India border experienced severe smog from mid-October through January each year. The annual return of smog is tied up with the onset of dry and cool periods of 10-15 weeks during autumn and winter, which causes the moist, smoky, dust-filled air to condense into smog, especially coinciding with crop harvesting time. Hence, typically, it is a temporary hazard that dies off when the temperature returns to normal and rainfall starts. However, bad quality air prevails around the year due to particulate matter and smoke emitted from industrial, transport, and agriculture sectors all year round. Therefore, neutralizing smog requires controlling emissions at the source around the year using given technologies since imported technologies are often costly and unaffordable.

Given the somewhat broader geographic scale of the hazard, spreading over dozens of cities on either side of the border and causing health risks for millions of people, neutralizing ambient air particulate matter (PM), though very crucial for improving air quality, especially risking the quality of human health and environment is almost impossible. However, a combination of the most effective technologies that focus on capturing, reducing, or neutralizing both PM2.5 (fine particles) and PM10 (coarse particles) at the emission source can be employed successfully. Besides, green technologies such as electric or hybrid transport vehicles, better-quality fuels, cloud seeding for artificial rain, and extensive tree cover can help reduce the intensity of the problem.

The following impactful technologies currently used or under development offer solutions to improve the air quality at the source, which, if enforced properly, can be substantially effective. These include Electrostatic Separators (ESPs), High-Efficiency Particulate Air Filters (HEPAF), Photocatalytic Oxidation (PCO), Electrostatic Spraying, Wet Scrubbers, Cyclone Separators, Ambient Air Purification Towers, Ionizers and Plasma Technology, Nanotechnology, and installing catalytic converters in automobiles.

Electrostatic precipitators (ESPs) charge particles in the air by passing them through an electric field. The charged particles then move towards collector plates of opposite charge, where they adhere and are removed from the air. ESPs are highly efficient, capturing up to 99% of particles, especially for industrial emissions, and are widely used in power plants, cement kilns, and steel mills. High-efficiency particulate Air (HEPA) Filters force air through a fine mesh that traps particles as small as 0.3 microns, including dust, pollen, smoke, and bacteria. Such filters are highly effective for indoor applications, removing over 99.97% of particles in targeted spaces.

Read More