As there appears to be no immediate let-up in the intensity of smog in Lahore in the absence of natural rainfall, Punjab’s academia has therefore decided to utilize artificial rain.
Dr Munawar Sabir, Director of the CIMR, revealed that they have been experimenting with artificial rain for several months and have made all of the required arrangements to carry out the experiment.
Dr Sabir added that more than 50 countries across the world have employed this technique to curb smog, lamenting that successive provincial governments did little to tackle this issue.
With respect to this, Punjab University’s Centre for Integrated Mountain Research (CIMR) plans to conduct a trial of artificial rain over the Khanaspur mountains in the Galiyat division in an area of one square kilometre within a week.
Khanaspur has been selected as the test site because it is a mountainous area with frequent cloudy days and high humidity levels
He said that CIMR is in constant contact with the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) Galiyat region and will perform the experiment on any day in the next seven days when there are up to 40% chances of cloudy weather and 70% humidity.
If CMIR manages to generate artificial rainfall for five to six hours in Lahore, then smog would be countered as the small particles that made up the smog will be washed away.
In this way, smog will be addressed if CMIR is successful in generating artificial rainfall in Lahore for five to six hours, as the minute particles that make up the smog will be rinsed away.
Like in previous years, the citizens of Lahore are in agony this year as the provincial capital has been engulfed in smog since the onset of winter.
Lahore has been occupying the top spot in terms of the worst air quality in the world for a couple of weeks now. The daily ranking is compiled by IQAir, a Swiss air quality technology company, which shows that the air quality of Lahore is not suitable to breathe in.