LAHORE: Chinese environmental experts held important meetings with the secretary Agriculture and secretary Environment Punjab here on Monday to discuss the issue of smog prevention in Punjab, especially in the provincial metropolis.
Chinese side led by the Consul General China Zhao Shiren discussed various proposals for addressing smog and assured their full support in tackling the issue.
Environment Secretary Rashid Kamal-ur-Rehman said that the Punjab government wants to use the experiences of Chinese environmentalists to tackle smog. He, however, claimed that they had succeeded in reducing the smog.
“We need the guidelines of Chinese environmental experts to deal with smog as countermeasures. Last month, artificial rain was successfully tested in Lahore to combat smog,” the secretary added.
DG Environment Zaheer Abbas Malik gave a detailed briefing on the measures taken by the Punjab government and the governing laws to combat smog. He said that it is a regional issue. Especially in Lahore, transport’s share in smog is 83.5%, 9.7% industry, 3.9% agriculture, 3.6% waste burning, 0.14%, commercial and domestic include 0.11% share.
SP&I gave a detailed briefing on the World Bank funded Punjab Green Development Programme.
China’s Consul General Zhou Shiran praised the efforts of the Punjab chief minister, Environment minister and the Environment secretary for reducing the smog rate by 10% in 2023 in the province of Punjab, especially in Lahore. Chinese experts explained about air pollution control mechanism, policy making support, technology system and tracking pollution events. In all, 295 institutions and 2900 scientific researchers worked together to control air pollution in different cities and parts of China, experts added.
Meanwhile, Agriculture Secretary Nadir Chattha in a separate meeting with the Chinese experts said that in Punjab, 6.4 million hectares of wheat and 2.6 million hectares of paddy were cultivated annually with an average yield of 3.2 and 2.3 million tons/ha respectively.
In the province of Punjab, 31% of wheat sowing is mechanized while harvesting is 69% by machines. Likewise, 6% of paddy is mechanized and 60% is harvested by machines.
Secretary Agriculture, Punjab clarified to the delegation that agriculture contributes only 20% to smog. He further said that according to the images taken from the satellite, the area under cultivation for paddy in Indian Punjab is double that of Pakistan, which is harvested along with paddy in Pakistan.
After harvesting paddy, more area in Indian Punjab set stubbles on fire, which results in increased air pollution. Apart from this, increasing population, high use of transport and industrial activities are among the main reasons for the formation of smog.
On this occasion, Chinese Consulate General General Zaho Shiren said that the purpose of meeting is mutual sharing of ideas, knowledge and experiences. During the meeting, the Chinese experts expressed their full cooperation to Agriculture Secretary Punjab Nadir Chattha.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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