Lahore’s new smog squad races to douse stubble fires

LAHORE: As smog again settles over large parts of South Asia, the authorities in Punjab are widening a crackdown on illegal stubble burning they say is fuelling the region’s annual pollution crisis. On Thursday, officers of a new quick-response unit swung off their vehicles at a paddy field on the edge of Lahore. Smoke curled low over the stubble, and the crew had the fire under control within minutes.

A first for Pakistan
The unit is the first of its kind in Pakistan dedicated to fighting pollution, officials say, and it is one of the most visible steps in a campaign that Punjab officials claim is working. Silwat Saeed, chief of the Environment Protection and Climate Change Department in Punjab, said the government this year formed a 750-member force in 67 rapid-response units across the major rice-growing districts. The teams aim to reach reported field fires within 10 to 15 minutes. In a single 24-hour period this week, the department received 679 field fire reports from across Punjab and said it extinguished 650 of them.

Fines, and what feeds the smog
Farmers caught burning stubble face fines of 15,000 Pakistani rupees ($54) per acre, said Muhammad Farooq, an assistant director of the Punjab Agriculture Department. Farmers in the region commonly set leftover rice residue alight after the October harvest, fuelling a toxic mix of industrial emissions, vehicle exhaust and construction dust that lingers under cold winter air. IQAir, the Swiss air-quality group, rated Lahore “very unhealthy” earlier this week.

Is the campaign working?
Punjab officials say it is, and satellites have detected less burned area in India and Pakistan than the historical average at this point in the year. But the smog crisis goes beyond field fires: experts say industrial emissions, traffic and construction dust are also a large part of it, and the air could worsen as winter sets in.