Smog in Lahore: Punjab EPA deploys 67 units to stop crop fires in 10 districts

Punjab's Environment Protection Agency (EPA) has put 67 Quick Response Units on the ground in 10 smog hotspot districts to find and put out crop-residue fires before the smoke reaches cities such as Lahore, ProPakistani reported on Monday 12 October. The units carry tractor-mounted fire bowsers and are posted along the main motorway routes, where burning rice stubble is easiest to spot.

How the smog quick response units work

• Finding fires: the EPA combines satellite fire-anomaly detection, drone surveillance and motorway patrols to locate fields being burnt, then sends the nearest unit.
• Putting them out: each unit has a tractor-towed water bowser, so it can reach a field off the road and douse the fire before it spreads.
• Results so far: the EPA says these methods picked up stubble-burning incidents over the past three days and firefighting was coordinated on each.
• Checks: EPA Director General Abdullah Nayyer Sheikh made a surprise visit to units on the Gujranwala-Sialkot Motorway on Sunday and found every one at its post with staff ready, according to the report. He also met agriculture department officials on monitoring the rice harvest, the period when stubble burning peaks.

The report did not list the 10 districts. The inspected units sit on the Gujranwala-Sialkot Motorway, which runs through one of Punjab's main rice-growing areas.

Why it matters for Lahore

Smoke from burnt paddy fields is one of the sources that push Lahore's air into the hazardous range every October and November, along with vehicles, brick kilns and industry. Stopping a fire in the field is the cheapest way to keep that smoke out of the city. The units are the field end of the provincial smog plan announced on 9 October, when Senior Provincial Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb listed 10,000 subsidised super seeders, about 8,000 zigzag brick kilns and 15 working smog guns, ProPakistani reported (our full rundown: Punjab smog plan).

What Lahore residents should know

1. Report smoke on 1373. The provincial helpline takes complaints about burning fields, garbage fires and smoke-emitting vehicles.
2. Get your vehicle emission-tested by 15 November. The EPA runs mobile testing units at nine locations in Lahore. Smoke-emitting vehicles face action. If your car also needs a fitness certificate, our PVICS charges guide explains the fees.
3. A smoky car wastes fuel. Check whether yours is burning more than it should with the fuel average calculator.
4. Plan for bad-air days. Keep masks at home for children and older relatives, and watch for school or office notices once the smog season sets in.

We will follow the season's orders, closures and AQI readings for Lahore on our Pakistan news desk.