Lahorites long to see clear sky

[LahoreEstate]

Monday, November 09, 2009
By Our Correspondent

LAHORE

A MAJORITY of citizens of the provincial metropolis are waiting for the first rain to see a clear winter sky and get rid of smog which has been engulfing the city for many days.

On Sunday, the MET Office forecast cloudy weather with chances of scattered thunderstorm and rain across Punjab, NWFP, Gilgit-Baltistan and Kashmir as well as in the provincial capital. On Sunday, the maximum temperature in the city was recorded at 28 C and minimum at 13 C. The MET Office said Saturday’s westerly wave over northern parts of the country persisted. It said relative humidity in the morning was 79 per cent and in the evening it was 49 per cent.

Environment experts said smog mostly spread due to vehicular pollution. They said smoggy weather would change after rain. They said fog was triggered by temperature inversion. They said normally air closer to the ground is warmer than the air above it and therefore it rises and begins to chill the air causing mist as water vapour which mixed with dust particles forms smog.

They claimed that smog could travel with wind and it could move to the adjoining areas.

They said most harmful components of smog were ground-level ozone and fine airborne particles. Ground-level ozone is forms when pollutants released from gasoline and diesel-powered vehicles and oil-based solvents react with heat and sunlight, they said adding that it was harmful to humans, animals and plants.

On the other hand, with the arrival of winter people have started taking out warm clothes while many have started visiting shops and second hand cloth markets to buy warm stuff. Lunda Bazaar is one of the most visited places these days and majority of the visitors said that they could not afford brand new winter clothes.

Sughran Bibi, a resident of Gawalmandi, said she came to buy sweaters in the Lunda Bazaar for her children. She said, “Earlier she had gone to Anarkali Bazaar but even ordinary sweaters were costly there as a small size sweater’s price was Rs 300 which I could not afford.” Shakeel, a shopkeeper at Lunda Bazaar, said though the number of visitors had increased in the bazaar for the past many days, the sale was yet to go high. He said the prices of winter clothes in Lunda Bazaar had also increased due to their high cost and high transportation charges. He feared that the high prices of second hand clothes might result in low sales.

Likewise, the sale of dry fruits have also increased in the city. One can see push-carts full of dry fruits at every nook and corner of the city. Most people were seen purchasing peanut because the price of other dry fruits like almonds, dry fig was very high. Traders of dry fruit held the ongoing war in Sawat and Waziristan responsible for the low supply of dry fruits. They said low supply increased the prices of the dry fruits.


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