Scientists from India, Pakistan to Join Hands to Fight Silent Killer - The Smog

18:06 GMT, 8 February 2019

The event “Two Punjabs One Atmosphere” will be held in Kathmandu in March this year, wherein atmospheric scientists, agricultural specialists and trans-border urban planners of India and Pakistan will discuss at length the problem of deadly smog that affects millions of people on both sides of the border every winter.

Sputnik

New Delhi (Sputnik): The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) will host scientists, experts and urban planners from India and Pakistan in the Nepalese capital in March 2019 to facilitate data sharing about air pollution and devise a common understanding on the subject.

"Between India and Pakistan, especially the two Punjabs, there is a lot of pollution that goes both ways across the border. There are sources on both sides of the border. Managing air quality in one place whether it is Delhi or in Lahore needs regional understanding and perspective", Arnico K. Panday, ICIMOD's regional programme manager (atmosphere), told Mongabay-India.

This is something where ICIMOD has a potential role to play and we have actually been asked by Pakistan's EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) and the CPCB (Central Pollution Control Board) in India to initially facilitate data sharing and scientific understanding, he adds.

Over the last few years, India and Pakistan have been trading charges against each other for the deadly smog in the Punjab region. Several efforts were made in the direction of bringing down the level of air pollution, but to no avail.

In January this year, air pollution in Lahore and northern India remained above 500 on the US Air Quality Index (US AQI) — almost double the level of 300 that is considered "hazardous" by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).