KARACHI: Amid growing challenge of pollution, the federal government has hinted at playing its role for gathering and maintaining Karachi’s air quality data, as the city despite being the business capital of the country relies on findings of a foreign station because two such facilities of the Sindh government are non-functional for the past several years, officials and sources said on Sunday.

A top official told Dawn that the federal government was already helping the Punjab government and a project in cooperation with the World Bank was under way for setting up air quality monitoring centres in Lahore from where authorities and environmentalists would be helped to suggest and devise measures relying on large scale and authentic data.

“We need same kind of centres in Karachi,” Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam told Dawn. “We will design a broad-based strategy and definitely being a federal organisation, we will also define the role of the Met office in this particular area.”

Two Sepa facilities have been lying non-functional for years; city relies on data provided by US consulate

He said initially 10 air quality monitoring centres were needed to be set up in Karachi. “In Punjab, there’s a project going on with the World Bank’s cooperation and we believe we would soon be able to sort out things for Karachi as well. The prime minister has recently discussed different proposals and he is clear about the greener and safer air policy.”

Mr Aslam agreed that accurate data was crucial to take up the challenge of climate change and being the commercial capital and revenue engine of the country, Karachi should have its own proper system for monitoring of air quality to discourage speculations and misinformation that often lead to fake news.

Two most polluted cities in world

The climate and environment activists believe that air quality monitoring centres are crucial while keeping in view the growing challenge of global warming.

They express their wonder over non-existence of proper air quality monitoring stations in Karachi when the city quite often is ranked among the most polluted cities of the world due to its poor air quality.

Only last month, Lahore and Karachi were ranked third and fourth, respectively, on the list of the world’s most polluted cities.

They claim that the city’s only source of gathering air quality data is the US consulate’s monitors, which measure airborne fine particulate matter only around their premises.

The airborne fine particulate matter is commonly referred to as PM 2.5 because the particulates are less than or equal to 2.5 microns in diameter.

The two centres of the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Spea) are lying non-functional for the past many years. However, the issue has pushed the Sindh government to take some immediate measures.

In a latest development, Sindh Local Government Minister Syed Nasir Shah had sought a comprehensive report on the feasibility of using modern air quality monitoring system to improve the atmosphere of the cities.

“Data from a single monitoring station cannot be applied to an entire city,” said Owais Haider, climate enthusiast and one of the founders of PakWeather, a private weather forecasting and broadcasting entity working for the past more than 20 years with its own countrywide weather stations.

“But unfortunately we don’t have any system at the government level which can help us collect this crucial data [air quality]. This data is crucial because we can gauge the challenge, weighs the approaching situation and devise a strategy at state level,” he said.

“We from our platform are also trying to expand our operations on these lines but it’s a huge job, which requires so much resources and investment. It should be carried out at government level on a war footing,” he said.

Published in Dawn, December 20th, 2021