2023-12-16 18:44:38
Published16. December 2023, 7:44 p.m.
Pollution: Pakistan uses artificial rain to combat smog
The Pakistani city of Lahore having exceeded the “dangerous” pollution threshold more than 66 times on Saturday, 48 rockets were fired to make it rain. You will have to wait to know the results.
The city of Lahore, Thursday, in the middle of the day…
AFP
In Pakistan, artificial rain was used for the first time on Saturday to combat the smog which is very harmful to the health of the population which is stagnating in the megacity of Lahore, announced the provincial government of Punjab. Planes, supplied by the United Arab Emirates and equipped with cloud-seeding technology, flew over ten areas of the city, considered one of the most polluted in the world.
“Teams from the United Arab Emirates arrived here with two planes ten to twelve days ago. They used 48 rockets to cause rain,” said acting head of the Punjab provincial government, Mohsin Naqvi. The team will know by Saturday evening whether the “artificial rain” process was successful.
Salt in the clouds
The United Arab Emirates is increasingly using the technique of cloud seeding to create artificial rain in the country’s arid regions, which are facing drought. The process consists of introducing into the clouds, to obtain precipitation, salt or a mixture of different salts, the crystals promoting the condensation which triggers rain.
This technique has been implemented in dozens of countries, including the United States, China and India. Even a little rain is effective in reducing pollution, experts say.
Air pollution has worsened in recent years in Pakistan, with low-end diesel fumes, fumes from seasonal agricultural burning and smog-promoting cold winter temperatures suffocating the lungs of 11 million people. residents of Lahore.
Heart and respiratory diseases, cancers, strokes
Levels of PM2.5 pollutants, carcinogenic microparticles that enter the bloodstream through the lungs, exceeded on Saturday in Lahore more than 66 times the threshold considered dangerous by the World Health Organization (WHO). .
The consequences of prolonged exposure to smog, this mixture of fog and polluting emissions, are catastrophic: heart disease, lung cancer, respiratory diseases, strokes, according to the WHO.
Successive governments have tried different approaches, including dousing roads with water or closing schools, factories and markets on weekends, with varying degrees of success.
(AFP)
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