Daily Times

Perhaps, we should have waited a while before heralding the successes of the Punjab government’s smog emergency as “historic.”

After a brief respite from the pollution season, air quality in Lahore is again headed in the dreaded direction, clinching the top of the world’s most toxic cities list with the Air Quality Index reading 611 on Thursday.

Just weeks ago, the thick blanket literally shut down life, when schools, offices and public spaces were closed in a desperate attempt to contain the unprecedented levels of pollution.

Things were so bad that at one point, AQI readings soared to over 80 times the level deemed acceptable by the international health bodies. Considering how divine intervention failed to undo decades of criminal neglect of our environment as a myriad of wrongdoings (lax construction regulations, poor fuel quality, an unabated presence of smoke-spewing vehicles on the roads on top of stubble burning by farmers across Punjab) contributed to a far earlier arrival of the brown haze, one can only expect the local governments to relax for as long as they possibly can only to blow the dust off some feel-good, knee-jerk reactions.

We might see another edition of the green lockdown that would make headlines for crackdowns against many sources of pollution. However, just as before, checking cars and trucks for their exhaust emissions or putting an end to plumes of black smoke from brick kilns cannot bring any lasting change. In order to actually keep up with what’s happening on all corners, lawmakers need to realise how solutions to air pollution would have to be designed beyond the scope of one election cycle.

Although hushed-hushed murmurs of “smog diplomacy” are often heard, Islamabad and New Delhi would have to put aside their complex dynamics to come together and collaborate as a region. The long-shelved SAARC Declaration on Control and Prevention of Air Pollution, for instance, could be revived, but only if authorities recognise that air does not differentiate between borders. *