'Conversion Of Brick Kilns Across Punjab To Help Reduce Air Pollution'

Sumaira FH Published May 05, 2021 | 07:00 PM

LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 5th May, 2021 ) :The conversion of 100 per cent functional brick kilns across the province to environment friendly zigzag technology will help reduce air pollution levels in the province, including its capital.

The target of shifting the brick kilns previously operating on old method to latest technology has been achieved by the PTI government in a short span of six months.

This was stated by Director Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) Nisar Sani while talking to APP here on Wednesday. He said 7,986 functional brick kilns in the province had been successfully converted to the latest technology without using financial resources of the Punjab government.

Since the Punjab government had declared smog a calamity last year, the monitoring of anti-smog activities were assigned to the PDMA led by Senior Member board of Revenue Babar Hayat Tarar.

The old technology brick kilns were a source of generating smog in the air and the PDMA started the initiative to convert brick kilns to latest zigzag technology, he added.

He said the provincial government also announced loans for kilns owners to shift their kilns to latest environment friendly technology.The PDMA carried out operations against smoke emissions and monitored anti smog activities across the province while a control room was also set up at the PDMA office.

He said that all district administrations led by deputy commissioners also played a pivotal role in making this drive a success.

Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on climate change Malik Amin Aslam and Minister of State Zartaj Gul also applauded the efforts made by the provincial government's departments, including the PDMA and Environment Protection Department in achieving this target in minimum time period.

The incumbent government led by Prime Minister Imran Khan, was proactively working to tackle environmental challenges faced by Pakistan as the country had been ranked as most climate-change affected country, he added.