Punjab’s Environment Protection Department (EPD) has failed to control vehicular pollution in Lahore and other major urban centres of the province, posing serious threat to health and lives of millions of citizens, Pakistan Today has learnt.
Pakistan is among those countries of the world where increased pollution levels are contributing to airborne diseases and premature deaths, but the authorities seem reluctant to act on this ever-growing public health concern, triggered mainly by vehicles plying on roads.
According to World Health Organization (WHO) and World Bank reports released towards the end of 2015, Pakistan’s urban air pollution may cause severe damages to human health and the national economy, as the country undergoes rapid motorisation and emerges as the most urbanised country in South Asia.
The reported levels of particulate matter (PM), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and lead (Pb) were found to be many times higher than the WHO air quality guidelines. More alarming is the fact that the metropolis of Lahore has been declared as the second most polluted city of the world in the 2014 WHO & WB reports.
Vehicles contribute to air pollution through emission of poisonous gases like carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides (NO2), respirable particulate matter (PM2.5) and lead (Pb).
To combat air pollution, the government has formulated acts and policies: the National Environment Action Plan (NEAP) and the Pakistan Environmental Protection Act, 1997 (PEPA-97) which covers air, water, soil and noise pollution, including hazardous waste disposal and vehicular pollution. Its section 15 (sub-sections 1 to 3) pertains to regulation of motor vehicles.
To check vehicular pollution, the EPD has to comply with the EURO-II standards of emissions. These standards were established following the standards of Punjab Environment Protection Agency under Clause (E) of Session 6 (1) of the Pakistan Environment Protection Act (PEPA), 1997. In 2009, the National Environmental Quality Standards (NEQS) were established with the approval of Pakistan Environment Protection Council.
Basic equipment like dynamometer is needed for testing and enforcing Euro-II standards, but the EPD has consistently failed to enforce the standards or comply with them.
The EURO-II standards were introduced by European countries to check vehicular pollution in 1993 but this system was replaced with more stringent standards, Euro-VI, in 2014.
In 2007, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) donated equipment to test lead in outdoor air but after 2010, the EPD failed to run the equipment for testing PM2.5 and other vehicular pollutants. Now the EPD does not estimate what annual level of PM.2.5 and other vehicular emission gases is and what level of polluted air is being inhaled by the citizens of Punjab, especially in big cities. Sources said the EPD never used this equipment but left it to rust away.
Also, Pakistan has high concentrations of lead (a chemical element in the carbon group which is banned internationally), according to the WHO and WB reports. The chemical is being illegally used in fuel to increase fuel efficiency and the EPA has no data whether this chemical element exists in ambient air.
Sources said that in the past, the EPD along with traffic police officials used to monitor vehicles for air pollution, but this practice was stopped later. Reportedly, four mobile vehicle emission testing (MVET) teams had been set up to carry out testing of vehicular emission in Lahore, sources said, adding that these teams were given mandate to check fitness of the vehicle as well as noise and emission of smoke.
According to Punjab University’s College of Earth and Environmental Sciences Principal Dr Sajid Rashid, emission of greenhouse gases from vehicles is one of the basic causes of air pollution.
He said the EPD formed quality standards following the West, but this had been far better had these rules been set according the situation of vehicles in the country. “In western countries, there is no concept of auto-rickshaws while other vehicles are bound to have emission tests from authorities before coming on roads,” he said, adding that in Pakistan no department was keen to pay attention towards this sensitive subject.
He said that not just two-stroke auto-rickshaws and motorcycle-rickshaws discharged poisonous gases, buses, trucks and other vehicles also contributed to greenhouse gases like volatile organic compounds, nitrogen oxide, hydro carbons, carbon dioxide, lead, suspended particulate matters, sulphur dioxide, aldehydes and organic acids and unburned lubricating oil. “So, we need to formulate quality standards to control vehicular pollution to save people from airborne diseases,” said Dr Sajid.
EPA director’s Spokesman Naseemur Rehman, while talking to Pakistan Today, said that the department was fully aware of the situation. He said that in the past EPA teams fined those motorists whose vehicles polluted air, but added that primarily this was traffic police’s duty to monitor vehicles involved in polluting air as per the Motor Vehicle Rules, 1969. He however added that the department would soon make rules to check vehicular pollution.
