Better air quality

During the Covid-driven lockdown, a 40% improvement in air quality has been registered in Karachi. Encouraged by this development, the provincial government has asked the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency to retain this reduction in air pollution and take steps to further improve the quality of air. It is does not matter whether the improvement has been achieved due to the lockdown or by human effort. We should make all efforts to further build up on the development, considering that deteriorating air quality in cities is causing diseases like bronchitis and lung cancer.

SEPA will now be more focused on measures to curb hazardous industrial and vehicular emission. It has issued instructions for industrial associations such as to keep on monitoring air quality after the end of lockdown in order to measure atmospheric degradation and plant large numbers of trees around factories and mills. SEPA is to launch a drive against smoke-emitting vehicles in collaboration with the traffic police. Transporters of smoke-emitting vehicles will be penalised. Industries have been asked to install wastewater treatment plants in line with the instructions of the Water Commission. Recycling of water and other scarce resources is essential for sustainable development. The SEPA director general has warned that those who burn solid waste will be dealt with sternly, asking the general public to report violations. The environmental watchdog has asked industries and members of the public to cooperate with it in controlling air pollution, insisting that bringing about a clean environment needs collective efforts.

The issue of pollution, undoubtedly, requires efforts of entire society. A poet bemoaned a world in which fish and bird and beast and man and tree and metal and stone live by devouring and destroying themselves continually.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 22^nd, 2020.

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