(LAHORE) Artificial rain was used for the first time on Saturday in Pakistan to combat smog that is harming the health of stagnate residents in the greater city of Lahore, the Punjab provincial government announced.
Planes, supplied by the United Arab Emirates and equipped with cloud seeding technology, flew over ten areas in the city, which is considered one of the most polluted areas in the world.
Mohsin Naqvi, acting Prime Minister of Punjab, said that this was a “donation” made by the United Arab Emirates.
“Teams from the UAE arrived here with two planes ten to twelve days ago. “They used 48 missiles to cause rain,” he told the press.
The official added that the team will know by Saturday evening whether the “artificial rain” operation was successful.
The UAE is increasingly using cloud seeding technology to produce artificial rain in the country’s drought-prone arid regions.
The process consists of introducing crystals into clouds to obtain precipitation, salt or a mixture of different salts, which promotes condensation that results in rain.
This technology has been applied in dozens of countries, including the United States, China and India.
Experts say that even a little rain is effective in reducing pollution.
Air pollution has worsened in recent years in Pakistan, where low diesel fumes, fumes from burning seasonal agricultural produce and cold winter temperatures have contributed to the smog that chokes the lungs of Lahore’s 11 million residents.
Levels of pollutants PM2.5, carcinogenic fine particles that enter the bloodstream through the lungs, on Saturday in Lahore more than 66 times exceeded the level considered dangerous by the World Health Organization.
The consequences of prolonged exposure to smog, that mixture of smog and polluted emissions, are catastrophic: heart disease, lung cancer, respiratory disease, and strokes, according to the World Health Organization.
Successive governments have tried various methods, including flooding roads or closing schools, factories and markets on weekends, with varying degrees of success.
