Punjab revises school timings as smog worsens
Punjab Adjusts School Timings Amid Escalating Smog Crisis
The timings of schools in Punjab are adjusted as the purpose of smoke crisis spreads throughout the province intensifying. The Punjab government has decided to change the school timings since Monday on account of deteriorating smog situation in the province whereby the daily sessions have started at 8:45 AM.
The city of Lahore, that has been numbered as the most polluted city of the world in the past three days, is recording dangerous air quality levels where thick smog covers the city. The Air Quality Index (AQI) reached 412 in total, leading to health alerts and a nation-wide campaign against the origins of pollution.
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High alert was taken by the Punjab Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) in the eastern parts of the province which include Lahore, Gujranwala, Sheikhupura, Kasur, Nankana Sahib, Faisalabad, Multan, Bahawalpur, Rahim Yar Khan, and Khanpur. The strength of smog between November and mid-December would increase according to the predictions of the Meteorological Department as opined by PDMA Director General Irfan Ali Kathia.
Rana Sikandar Hayat, his official X account confirmed this announcement that he said:
“Winter school timing — 8:45am to 1:30pm.”
In the meantime, Punjab Senior Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb also told a media brief saying that the province is now working with a digital and AI-based forecasting portal to keep track of air quality.
She stated that the system has been created based on past environmental data and is currently available to the general population on the Air Quality Portal, and daily projections are published by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Speaking of the smog issues, Marriyum said,
“Smog is a seasonal phenomenon. This season has an average length of three months whereby temperature inversion and cold air create a lid on top of the atmosphere due to easterly passage of the east west corridor.”
She also indicated that in this lid of the atmosphere, the pollutants of particles get stagnated to generate the thick haze of the smog.
Marriyum further explained that it is impossible to explain sharp AQI drops only by local pollutants, and the early morning temperature decrease tends to increase smog, whereas increasing day temperature tends to scatter PM.
She called smog guns a temporary and artificial solution and mentioned that the previous administrations tended to take care of smog by simply shutting down schools and businesses, or placing lockdown-like penal on them.
“It was the first time our smog was controlled, and we were not using closures, but the Air Quality Index in Lahore was getting better,” she said.
What the minister discovered is that smog management has ceased to be limited to the winter period.
She added that the mitigation measures against smog were being implemented year-round, saying they were not simply working during those three months.
