KARACHI:
For decades, different government regimes have talked about green environment and tree plantation campaigns. However, they have left many issues unattended including industrial and vehicle emissions, smoke from brick kilns, burning of crop residue, dust from construction sites and waste, which have made Lahore a city with the worst Air Quality Index (AQI). The greed of a few, patronised by powerful stakeholders and land developers has destroyed Lahore, which once boasted cleanliness with an AQI far better and healthier than other cities.
The real estate developers may have made a bonanza, but citizens are paying the price with their health and lives. Major ailments like cancer, heart and lung diseases, etc have risen. Stunted growth amongst infants is on the rise. The cost in terms of human lives and sufferings far exceeds the financial benefits of few. In 2018, Lahore ranked as the 10th most polluted city, which by 2019 had degenerated to the worst ranking at number one. Since 2018 onwards, the AQI in Lahore, Faisalabad, Peshawar, Karachi etc has deteriorated.
The provincial government has been paying lip service to the mandatory installation of ZigZag technology in brick kilns, and campaigns to curtail toxic emissions and stop farmers from burning crops, but the criminal reality is that citizens of Lahore are forced to inhale toxic air. All that we hear is that the local administration has imposed fines of a few crores, which is just pep talk. It is no coincidence that the real estate boom turning green agricultural pastures into concrete jungles for the benefit of a few cartels has destroyed the environment. Thousands of natural oxygen-providing trees on the periphery of Lahore and other major cities in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have been progressively wiped out and replaced by plots and concrete jungles. Commercial profiteering by the land mafia precedes the lives of citizens.
Malik Tariq Ali
Lahore
Published in The Express Tribune, December 10th, 2022.
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