LAHORE: The extreme smog disaster in Punjab has compelled the federal government to take drastic actions, together with the closure of faculties, but the province’s air high quality — notably that of the capital metropolis — stays dangerously poor, leaving residents struggling to breathe.
The provincial authorities’s Environmental Safety Company on Friday additionally ordered an entire ban on the individuals’s entry in all parks (private and non-private), zoos, playgrounds, historic locations, monuments, museums and pleasure/play lands efficient November 8, a notification signed by the Dr Imran Hamid Sheikh, the director common of the company.
The order — signed beneath the Punjab Environmental Safety Act, 1997 — will stay in drive until November 17 (Sunday) inside the territorial jurisdictions of Lahore, Gujranwala, Faisalabad and Multan Divisions i.e. Districts of Lahore, Sheikhupura, Kasur, Nankana Sahib, Gujranwala, Gujrat, Hafizabad, Mandi Bahudin, Sialkot, Narowal, Faisalabad, Chiniot, Jhang, Toba Tek Singh, Mulan, Lodhran, Vehari and Khanewal.
In Lahore, the air high quality index (AQI) reached 860 on IQAir’s real-time rating of most polluted cities at present (Friday), which later dipped to 613 by 11:15am. Regardless of the drop in ranges, town’s air remained nicely inside the hazardous zone.
Those that try and violate the orders might be punished beneath part 188 of the Pakistan Penal Code.
The notification maintained that the Punjab authorities is striving exhausting to manage all potential intrinsic components which trigger air air pollution and deteriorate high quality of ambient air.
“Preemptive measures towards all of the sources of air air pollution have already been began by EPA in addition to different involved departments,” it added.
The notification additional learn that the provincial authorities notified a Well being Advisory System for Important Air Air pollution Occasions (HAS-CAPEs} on December 13, 2022, beneath which the primary assembly of the Provincial CAPEs Committee (PCC) was held on October 21, 2024, which declared that Important Air Air pollution Occasion has taken place in Lahore, preserving in view the present excessive ranges of Air High quality Index (AQI).
“And whereas, Part 6(1)(t) of The Punjab Environmental Safety Act 1997 empowers EPA to take or trigger to be taken all crucial measures for the safety, conservation, rehabilitation and enchancment of the setting, prevention and management of air pollution, and promotion of sustainable improvement,” it talked about.