Air quality worsens as smog tower falters
The Pakistan Air Quality Experts Group has declared the first smog control tower installed in Lahore ineffective in reducing air pollution, stressing the need for scientifically grounded strategies to combat the city's worsening air quality.
Experts have also dismissed artificial rain as an unsustainable solution for pollution mitigation.
The advisory group, which issued its air quality management recommendations on November 11, 2023, highlighted key measures to address the dangerously high PM 2.5 pollution levels in Lahore and across Punjab.
These included the closure of brick kilns, smelters, and the restriction of heavy vehicle entry on high-pollution dayssimilar measures adopted in cities like Beijing and New Delhi with significant success.
Although these restrictions were temporarily enforced in Lahore, the city's air quality has since deteriorated to hazardous levels.
Dawar Rahmeed Butt, coordinator of the group and environmental expert, revealed that Lahore's daily average PM 2.5 concentration in 2024 exceeded historical levels, highlighting the inadequacy of the Punjab government's current smog mitigation plan.
"The smog control tower installed in the Mehmood Boti area, built in collaboration with the National University of Science and Technology (NUST), has proven ineffective," Butt said. "Similar towers in China and India were decommissioned due to their impracticality. To achieve healthy PM 2.5 levels in Lahore, over 20,000 such towers would be required, which is both cost-prohibitive and energy-intensive."
He emphasised that the energy required to operate these towers makes them more expensive and less efficient than addressing pollution at its sources, such as industrial emissions, brick kilns, and vehicular fumes.
The Punjab Environment Protection Agency's (EPA) analysis of air quality data supports these findings.
From December 15 to 31, 2024, the AQI in the Mehmood Boti area exceeded Lahore's average AQI on nine out of 14 monitored days, with readings ranging between 320 and 742 during peak pollution.
These figures demonstrate that the tower had no measurable impact on air quality, with changes attributed instead to local activities and weather conditions.
Artificial rainfall, another proposed solution, has also been criticised.
Experts pointed out that adverse climatic conditions limit its effectiveness, making it an unsustainable long-term option.