The Pakistan Air Quality Experts Group has declared the first smog control tower installed in Lahore ineffective in curbing the city’s rising air pollution levels. In a recent report, the group emphasized the need for scientifically grounded and sustainable strategies to combat Lahore’s worsening air quality, while dismissing artificial rain as a viable long-term solution.
The advisory group, which issued its recommendations on November 11, 2023, identified critical measures to reduce the city’s dangerously high PM 2.5 pollution levels. These measures include the closure of brick kilns and smelters and the restriction of heavy vehicles on high-pollution days—policies that have proven successful in cities like Beijing and New Delhi. Despite temporary enforcement in Lahore, air quality has since plummeted to hazardous levels.
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Dawar Rahmeed Butt, environmental expert and coordinator of the group, revealed that Lahore’s PM 2.5 levels in 2024 surpassed historical records, underscoring the inadequacy of the Punjab government’s current smog control plan. He criticized the smog control tower, installed in collaboration with the National University of Science and Technology (NUST) in Mehmood Boti, as impractical. Butt explained that, like similar projects in China and India, the tower has failed to yield any significant improvements.
“For Lahore to reach healthy PM 2.5 levels, over 20,000 such towers would be needed, which is neither cost-effective nor energy-efficient,” Butt noted. He stressed that addressing pollution at its source—such as reducing industrial emissions, brick kilns, and vehicle fumes—remains the most efficient strategy.
Data from the Punjab Environment Protection Agency (EPA) supports these conclusions. From December 15 to 31, 2024, the AQI in the Mehmood Boti area exceeded Lahore’s average AQI on nine of the 14 monitored days, with readings ranging between 320 and 742. The smog tower, the EPA analysis shows, had no measurable impact on air quality, with weather and local activities being the primary influencers.
Artificial rainfall, another proposed pollution mitigation tactic, has also been dismissed as unsustainable, with experts highlighting its limited effectiveness under adverse climatic conditions.
