Coordinator to Prime Minister on Climate Change, Romina Khurshid Alam, on Wednesday took serious notice of the rapidly worsening air quality in recent days in the federal capital city and its surrounding areas.
She directed the Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) to take necessary measures to cope with the issue in coordination with the relevant official stakeholders including Islamabad Capital Territory Administration and Capital Development Authority (CDA).
The deteriorating air quality of Islamabad from the onset of mid-October has particularly started worsened further, leaving the city’s ambiance murky with increasing pollution, dust and vehicular emissions raising alarm bells for smog risk, Romina Khurshid Alam noted.
She said the poor air quality in Islamabad, like many urban areas, can be attributed to several factors, adding that the main causes include vehicle emissions, industrial pollution, construction dust, burning of waste and crop residue.
She said addressing these drivers of bad air quality in the city requires stringent enforcement of the relevant environmental regulations and fines.
She said adoption of better waste management practices and public awareness campaigns to combat pollution effectively are essential to compliment the air quality improving measures.
Romina Khurshid Alam urged the city dwellers to play their part by avoiding burning of waste and crop residue. She also urged the city’s waste collection authorities to regularly collect the waste from designated points and dispose of it properly on environmentally sustainable and scientific manner to avoid its burning by the people in streets.
In a statement, Pak-EPA officials said efforts are being taken to tackle the growing air pollution in the capital city for protection of public health from its hazardous impacts.
They said air quality monitoring is being conducted on regular basis through mobile station and low-cost air quality monitoring sensors across the city.
They said the city’s environmental watchdog’s Environmental Monitoring Team (EMT) has conducted on October 28 a monitoring exercise with focus on vehicular emissions from heavy transport vehicles at the Mandi Morr entry point, Sector I-11, Islamabad.
They said on October 28, monitoring was carried out in collaboration with the Islamabad Traffic Police (ITP) to address the smog issue so as to enhance the capital’s air quality. During such exercise, the team also assessed the smoke emitted by diesel-fueled heavy vehicles, using the Ringelmann scale for evaluation and measured noise emissions with a dedicated noise meter, the official added.
