Smog can reduce lifespans by 6-11 years: PM Imran

Prime Minister Imran Khan addressed an inauguration ceremony for the Gillani Park Urban Forestation initiative in Lahore on Friday. The prime minister said that in the last 1213 years the city has lost 70% of its tree cover.

Counting the lingering effects of smog due to the lost green cover, the premier said that 6-11 years of a person's lifespan are reduced. He said the adverse affects are so many they "cannot be quantified".

Having grown up in the city, he recalled a time when one would travel on Mall Road and after crossing Aitchison College would move towards Zaman Park, they would feel a temperature drop.

PM Imran Khan said he has seen the city transform right before his eyes, lamenting that as the population grew, planning was not done to accommodate the city's burgeoning needs. "No one ever cared before, and now all these effects are before you which we are setting out to reverse," he said.

The prime minister said that it is not a huge ask, and can be done.

Citing the example of Singapore, he said that the main river there was "nothing but sewerage" but lies transformed today after the prime minister set out on a mission to make the city state more environmentally friendly. "That same river has fish swimming in it today," he said.

The premier said, what is required, however, is a lot of hard work, and lauded the efforts of Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam, Chief Minister Punjab Usman Buzdar and the Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA) Lahore to take the "first step" in this regard.

"You have chosen 50 sites to implement the Miyawaki concept whereby a jungle that grew in 50 years previously will now grow in 10 or 20 years. So this is an excellent first step," he said.

The prime minister said that these 50 sites and what is planned for them must be shared with the people because they have a great interest in seeing the declining green cover restored.

He said in KP barren areas have been transformed into lush, green areas where the government undertook the Billion Tree Tsunami initiative.