While China has used a similar technology of cloud sowing in the past, the Beijing's situation has only improved significantly after the government has resorted to emission restrictions and other large -scale measures. Environmental activists and locals are concerned about making Pakistan too late.
41-year-old Bashir Ahmed, a Builder from Lahore, said that the current crisis followed the years of neglect of the environment, including the demolition of bulldozers of lush parks of the city to free space for shopping centers and highways. In recent decades, Lahore has lost 75 percent of its green cover, local environmental groups say.
After a few weeks, inhaling the air with a pungent odor in Ahmeda had a sore throat and a constant cough that doctors accused of contamination. "The hospital was crowded with patients like me," he said, adding that if government officials do not take additional measures, "Lahore will soon become unusable." In addition to deforestation and disappearance of green spaces, researchers and activists are primarily accused of exhaust gas and dust from construction sites, toxic emissions from old cars and plants, as well as burning seasonal plant residues. Construction projects and agricultural practices. "In this country we have a transport mafia and a construction mafia," he said. "There is no alternative to finally confront them."
Instead, business associations say, officials decided to go to low-emission sectors, which seem easier to curb. Tarik Mehubub, who heads the Pakistan network stores, said the recent sanctioned government of closing supermarkets and local stores has led to the fact that merchants in Lahore and other cities have lost more than $ 35 million - another blow during the worst economic downturn.
Mehubub called the government instead to fight low -quality gas, which continues to be sold to drivers in Pakistan, despite the fact that other countries have banned it due to its impact on the environment. In an interview with Farzan Altaaf Shah, the head of the Pakistan Environmental Agency, he defended the reaction of the government, stating that the agency was taking measures against unauthorized construction projects and ordered the police to deal with vehicles that violate the preying. Political scientists are not enough to make changes. As Pakistan is preparing for the elections expected in early February, the problems with the quality of the air do not take a prominent place on the political agenda, said Hasan Askari Run, political scientist from Lahore.
Much of the political debate is still concentrated on the honesty of the election, since the most popular opposition leader, former Prime Minister Imran Khan, is in prison after he has been sentenced to prison for corruption and arrested in August. But the cut said that even if the elections did not dominate political tension, a number of other urgent problems, including an increase in the number of attacks of fighters, high inflation and poverty, would be more urgent and serious problems for many voters.
Irfan Ahmed, a fabric trader in Lahora, said that if he had to choose between the government's efforts to stimulate the economy or stop working to combat air pollution, he would have chosen first.
According to him, closing his business in recent weeks "did nothing to improve the quality of air." "Everything that did this cost me and other traders millions."
