THE Lahore High Court lashes out at the government for its inaction on the smog issue, as reported in Dawn`s Nov14 issue.
The LHC Chief Justice censured the Environment Protection Department for failing to tal(e action and not providing the latest Air Quality Index figures. A declaration of health emergency is mandatory when the AQI crosses 430. The federal and Punjab governments need them to find out what is causing the smog and address the causes.
It is common knowledge that farmers in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are planting rice. Once the rice is harvested its stalk is burned. This is the main cause of smog. The question we need to ask ourselves is: should we be cultivating rice when Pakistan is already a water-starved country? America has 900 days of water storage capacity. Despite this they cultivate rice on only one per cent of their arable land.
Pakistan has a mere 30 days of water storage and we cultivate rice on 16 per cent of our arable land. We should stop cultivating rice in areas where our water is serviced by canals and by extraction of ground water.
