Senior citizen spends pension on free distribution of plants
July 5, 2021
PESHAWAR: Pir Muhammad Misal Shah, a septuagenarian who got retirement from Education Department of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, is contributing majority of his pension on free distribution of plants amongst people for making air of Peshawar clean and pollution free.
For the last five years, Misal Shah is utilizing his energies on combating air pollution in Peshawar, ranked amongst the most polluted cities of the world.
He has established a nursery near Gul Bahar area of Peshawar from where people can get free of cost saplings to plant in their home or field. “My nursery is open for everyone who can visit here and get any plant he likes without demand of a single penny from him,” he added.
PCAA launches drive to improve air quality in Peshawar
Peshawar
June 5, 2021
PESHAWAR: A campaign has been launched for ensuring improved air quality in the provincial capital following the formation of a civil society organization, a press release said.
It added that the Peshawar Clean Air Alliance (PCAA) is a volunteer association of civil society individuals and groups sharing a common vision of air quality for the city.
The PCAA is an alliance of civil society activists, academia, researchers, environment and health experts, media and policy making representatives aiming to to find ways and measures to tackle the toxic emissions that pose a direct threat to health and contribute to climate change.
South Asia’s extreme smog worsens each winter, helping to kill an estimated 1.2 million Indians and 128,000 Pakistanis annually more than have died in either country from the COVID virus. As pollution this past winter exacerbated the pandemic, India’s and Pakistan’s governments responded with mutual blame. Yet COVID, and a sudden moment of détente between these bitter rivals, could offer an opportunity to address the smog crisis, and build rare collaboration with the only strategy that can work: a joint one. The governments, their U.S. and international allies and civil society should use this chance to jumpstart such an effort.
Bad air
December 21, 2020
Lahore has reached hazardous air quality levels, in keeping with the annual smog nightmare the city goes through during the winter season. In fact, Pakistan as a country faces a severe air pollution challenge; the issue exceeds European levels by almost 10-20 times, and sometimes even more. According to the Pakistan Air Quality Initiative (PAQI), air pollution causes 59,241 deaths in Pakistan each year. Even when lives are not directly lost, millions more continue to suffer long-term breathing ailments as a result of the high levels of air toxicity. For example, in Lahore, in the last half a decade, a smog cloud has continued to engulf the city throughout the year, which gets worse in the winter months. There is a need to set up monitoring mechanisms and target numbers which must be achieved by taking action against polluting industries. This cannot be done without taking a comprehensive approach towards curbing pollution.