ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam has said a transboundary dialogue on mitigating air pollution was imperative to resolve issue of Lahore’s smog, which mostly generates because of crop residue burning by Indian farmers across the border.

During the 26th Conference of Parties (COP-26) held in Glasgow, the SAPM said he had proposed the South Asian Ministers’ panel meeting that Pakistan could convene a regional conference on addressing the issue of transboundary air pollution under the Mali Agreement as the country was signatory to it.

He said the recent NASA report had indicated 80 per cent crop burning hotspots in the Indian Punjab particularly in the state of Haryana that were shifting the effluence to Lahore causing smog.

“A $280 million World Bank funded project will be implemented in Punjab for advanced air quality monitors was also facing a halt despite receiving complete funding.

“It is a very important project that will help generate real time certified data which will be a calibrated one as data scarcity is also a hurdle in timely decision making,” he said.

Pakistan, Amin Aslam said, in its capacity had introduced Euro-V quality fuel, Electric Vehicles Policy, over a million brick kilns conversion over zigzag technology and dry scrubbers were introduced in the steel furnaces to reduce dark carbon emissions into the atmosphere to curb smog.

Despite all these measures, air pollution was entering Pakistan from India as transboundary pollution was becoming a major crisis for the region particularly Pakistan that needed to be addressed, the SAPM noted.

To a query, he pointed out that Happy Seeder Technology an advanced solution to curb crop residue burning, was also introduced last year in Punjab and 500 machines were distributed among the farmers and was to be scaled up in the next phase. However, again the project was also facing hiccups in the Punjab government, he added.

He said that during the last week, a dust storm emerged in the Thal Desert has also hit the Lahore region and created pollution.

Amin concluded, “We need to talk to India to contain its contamination of the ambience and help protect the environment. I have also raised this issue of bilateral engagement on air pollution at the COP-26 platform.”

It merits mention that a research in 2019 revealed that every year some 23 million tonnes of rice residue was burnt in the states of Haryana, Punjab and Western Uttar Pradesh, contributing significantly to air pollution and short-lived climate pollutants.