Testing times for the people living in the urban centres of Punjab are back as smog has again engulfed major cities. According to initial reports, there has been an abrupt increase in respiratory, throat, and eye related ailments in smog affected areas, mainly the city of Lahore. The ‘City of Gardens’ as it is known owing to the presence of a large number of parks, is one of the worst cities in the world when it comes to air quality. The accumulation of smog in the air and governmental response to it has been consistent in the last decade or so. This time around, the Government of Punjab again seems clueless as it has announced closure of schools, colleges, businesses, and main highways. Such last minute emergency responses seem counterproductive and only hurt the economy of the city, and the country at large.

A World Bank Report estimated the annual cost of air pollution at USD $ 5.1 trillion amounting to 7.2% of the global GDP. According to a Pakistan Air Quality Index (PAQI) report, up to 5.88 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), or $47.8 billion, are spent as the economic cost of air pollution in Pakistan. This is way too much for an already overburdened economy like Pakistan. At the local level, the closure of schools, colleges, and businesses due to smog results in a seriously decreased economic activity. This places low and middle income households at risk of hunger and poverty. Daily wagers such as, labourers, rickshaw and taxi drivers, stall owners, and street sellers rely on what they earn between dawn and dusk. Smog as thick as witnessed in Lahore each year restricts people’s movements, passing the brunt on to households with limited or day to day incomes.

Pakistan’s foremost natural resources are arable land and water. Agriculture accounts for about 18.9% of Pakistan’s GDP and employs about 42.3% of the labour force. The most agricultural province is Punjab where wheat & cotton are the most grown. According to international experts, up to 30 percent global agricultural productivity is projected to diminish as a result of Ozone depletion caused by air pollution. This will prove to be detrimental for Pakistan’s economic growth. Not only will this downfall of agricultural output adversely impact the livelihoods of farmers, but will also put the Country’s food security in jeopardy. In order to cater growing population, wheat and other necessary vegetables are already being imported, widening Pakistan’s current account deficit.

In terms of human security, air pollution causes a number of disastrous ramifications on people and governance. Firstly, smog season significantly increases hospital admission rates overwhelming the health infrastructure of the Country. Vast majority of the patients come from low income households as most of the work they do is outdoors. In some cases, respiratory problems among children below the age of five leave their lungs and other respiratory organs damaged for the rest of their lives. According to official data, air pollution is responsible for around 135,000 deaths annually making it a major cause of mortality in Pakistan. Smog is a public health emergency that threatens to reduce life expectancy among residents.

Successive governments have been shrugging off their responsibility by blaming Indian farmers of their outdated agricultural practices across the border. On the contrary, most of the air pollution in Lahore and urban centres of Punjab is home grown. The unchecked diesel emissions, coal combustion, crop burning, industrial emissions, and two-stroke vehicles are major causes of air pollution. According to recent studies, average annual road traffic is increasing at the rate of nearly 9 percent, with over 11 million vehicles being used as means of domestic and public transportation. This will only aggravate the air pollution further if necessary preemptive steps are not taken on an emergency basis.

At the governmental level, policymakers need to do away with ‘adhocism’ and strive to find permanent solutions to make the air quality better. The Punjab Environmental Protection Agency (PEPA) seems detached from its primary responsibilities until smog appears and causes havoc. The ad hoc last minute responses such as closure of businesses, factories, schools, colleges, and highways do not prevent smog, instead put vulnerable households at the verge of poverty and hunger. Since smog has the tendency to exert pressure on multiple sectors of the economy and disturb economic indicators of the Country, there must be proper long term preventive measures backed by thorough research and financing. Use of hybrid, electric, and catalytic technologies in vehicles need to be incentivized in order to decrease urban carbon emissions. Steel mills and rubber factories need to be checked and must be equipped with modern technologies that significantly lower their emissions into the atmosphere. Awareness campaigns for wheat farmers are direly needed to do away with the centuries old agricultural techniques which include burning of crop stubble.