Daily Times

LAHORE: Rough weather and low visibility due to dense smog has left at least eight people dead and dozens more wounded in various traffic accidents across Punjab.

Smog, a chemical reaction that causes air to be significantly polluted and hinders traffic visibility, has impaired traffic routes as well flight schedules.

Five people were killed and nine injured in Kamonki when a passenger van collided with a bus amid low visibility due to heavy smog.

A truck-bus collision on the motorway near Jalalpur Bhattian left one dead and five others wounded.

A multi-vehicle accident involving at least eight cars on M2 motorway near Sargodha left 10 people injured. Police said the crash was caused due to smog. A passenger van slammed into a truck in Sheikhupura, leaving 15 people injured. All the wounded belonged to the same family.

In Lahore, four people were brought to a local hospital after they were injured in a car crash. Four others were hurt after an oil tanker ran over a motorbike before bumping into a truck in Arifwala. At least two people were killed and more than a dozen others injured, some critically, in multiple smog related road mishaps in Jhang on Saturday. Police and rescue sources said that due to poor visibility caused by smog, various vehicles, motorcycles collided with each other in different areas of Jhang city and suburbs.

On the other hand, at least five flights from Multan and Faisalabad were cancelled due to the dense smog. Reports said Faisalabad airport was closed while flights at Multan airport were also affected. Three international flights to Faisalabad were diverted to Lahore due to heavy smog.

The smog also triggered closure of multiple sections of the motorway, primarily during the nighttime. Motorway police said the visibility had dropped down to only 25-50 metres at various places from Lahore to Bhera. Authorities, therefore, advised citizens to be careful while driving on highways. The speed of trains running in Punjab was also slowed down to avoid any mishaps.

Medical experts have recommended sporting spectacles whilst in the open and a mask to keep smog and pollutants entering their system as locals were suffering from throat and eye infections due to the smog.

Air pollution must not exceed 80 microgram per cubic meter as per standard measures but the same has exceeded to 200 microgram per cubic meter in multiple areas of Lahore.

Electricity shortfall has reached 4500MW due to low water level in dams and the smog-triggered tripping of system. At present, power generation stands at 9,000 MW while demand is 13,500 MW. In order to curb the shortfall, the government has announced to re-open furnace oil-based power plants.

In the wake of continuous smog in Punjab, an adjournment motion was presented in the provincial assembly by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), demanding vacations in educational institutions until the situation gets better.

Punjab Environment Minister Begum Zakia Shah said on Saturday that the arch-rival India was responsible for the smog across the border in Pakistan’s Punjab.

Talking to media, she reasoned that the neighbouring state burnt 35 million tons of waste which caused air pollution. She believes that the polluted air was carried to the Pakistani side by eastern winds and such climatic conditions occurred which made the smog static in Punjab.

Environment Secretary Saif Anjum – who was also present at the press conference – told that the authorities had fined 15,718 vehicles that were spreading pollution. He added that they have arrested 65 people and sealed 157 factories. Met Office DG Muhammad Rizwan forecasted that the most regions will stay under the dense smog for the next 10 days. He said that the density of the smog was lower than that of last year’s which shows signs of improvement in the environment. The only way to end smog was rain and there were no indications of it at the moment, he concluded.

Published in Daily Times, November 5^th 2017.