A cruel irony permeates the air we breathe in Lahore. A city that once welcomed winter fogs is now drowning in toxic air. Every exhale is a borrowed breath. Every breath of air is a mix of chemicals, smoke, and dust. Smog is no longer a seasonal issue. It is now a plague that keeps returning.

For years, our sky had been gray with little thought. Brick kilns, burning crop residue, vehicles, dusty unpaved roads, and industrial smoke blended together to slowly poison the air. What we called winter smog was actually a time bomb that kept growing and turning our lungs into landfills. Over time, the disregard for the environment increased.

But something is now different. The Punjab administration seems to be the first to see smog as a structural challenge. It now treats it as a problem that needs system based solutions instead of temporary actions and empty words.

At the heart of this change is measurement. The province once had only three operational monitoring stations. Now it has 75 fixed stations and 10 mobile units. It plans to add 25 more by the end of the year. With better information, authorities will finally be able to identify the enemy.

Measurement led to prediction, and prediction led........

© The Spine Times