Air Quality in Rawalpindi/Islamabad

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Air Quality in Rawalpindi/Islamabad

• By
• Dr. Irshad Ahmad
• National Consultant

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NAME OF THE CITY Rawalpindi / Islamabad

• FACT FILE OF THE CITY
• Location
• Islamabad, Pakistan's federal capital, is a new
  city standing back to back with an old one
  Rawalpindi which is the northern most division of
  Punjab. The twin cities with contrasting charms.

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NAME OF THE CITY Rawalpindi / Islamabad

• Location
• Islamabad is divided into well planned squares
  and rectangles contrasting sharply with
  Rawalpindi which sprawls across the map with the
  accidental irregularities of ancient human
  settlements.

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NAME OF THE CITY Rawalpindi / Islamabad

• Islamabad boasts of the only Lok Virsa or the
  Folk Art museum in the country, besides Faisal
  Mosque, which is one of the biggest mosques in
  the world.
• It also has a Natural History museum, along with
  some of the most eye catching hill resorts such
  as Daman-e-koh, Margalla hills, Sanduri and many
  others.
• Islamabad being the federal capital is also the
  custodian of the Parliament House, Presidency,
  and all the foreign Embassies.

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NAME OF THE CITY Rawalpindi / Islamabad

• Rawalpindi presents a sharp and total contrast to
  Islamabad's brave new world.
• It is at the end of the famous Salt Range and is
  the gateway to the Silk Route.
• It is also the base camp of thrill seekers from
  the over the world, who buckle-up here, to meet
  the most deadly and treacherous peaks in the
  world - the Karakorums.
• Rawalpindi is famous for being a strong military
  cantonment, standing square on the ancient Grand
  Trunk Road, almost between Lahore and Peshawar.

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NAME OF THE CITY Rawalpindi / Islamabad

• The town's bazaars - Saddar, Raja, Sarafa and
  Murree Road - offer an absorbing pot pourri of
  the workmanship of the neighboring regions.
• All these things, reminiscent of a cross section
  of places and people beckon a traveler to visit
  the twin cities.   

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NAME OF THE CITY Rawalpindi / Islamabad

• Brief history of the city
• Rawalpindi was originally called Fatchpur Boari
• The history of Rawalpindi dates back to
  antiquity.
• The Aryans could, perhaps, be described as the
  pioneer invaders of this area for they started
  it all in the 15th century B.c.

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NAME OF THE CITY Rawalpindi / Islamabad

• Brief history of the city
• In 1008 A.D., Mahmood of Ghazna crossed the
  Indus, conquered this part of the country and
  gave it to the Chief of Gakkhar tribe to rule.
• The site where the city stands today was then
  known as Rawalpindi, after the name of a small
  village where the Rawals, a wandering tribe, had
  settled.

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NAME OF THE CITY Rawalpindi / Islamabad

• Cultural and architectural highlights
• On the basis of archaeological discoveries,
  archaeologists believe that a distinct culture
  flourished on this plateau as far back as 3,000
  years.

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• FACT FILE OF THE CITY
• Weather / seasons / wind
• Climate is subhumid to subtropical continental,
  receiving rainfall from both monsoon and western
  disturbances.
• Four seasons Winter, Spring, Summer and Autmn
• Wind direction is evenly distributed throughout
  the year. In the late afternoons, winds are
  mainly from southwest, except in July and August
  when southeastern winds dominate.

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• FACT FILE OF THE CITY
• rain/ temperature
• The maximum rainfall occurs during the monsoon
  season from July to September. The average
  rainfall is about 1,044 millimeters per year,
  with more than 50 occurring in monsoon season.
• The mean maximum temperature ranges from 25.6oC
  to 39.4oC (78.1oF to 103oF) in June and the mean
  minimum temperature ranges from 3.2oC to 16.7oC
  (37.8oF to 62oF) in January.

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City Population ('000) Setting Annual Avg. Wind Speed Estimated Number of Vehicles per 1000 Persons Major Pollution Sources
Rawalpindi-Islamabad 1,931 Plateau 0.9 m/s 133 Vehicles, Brick kilns, waste burning
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NAME OF THE CITY Rawalpindi / Islamabad

• FACT FILE OF THE CITY
• Population
• Rawalpindi 1700,000 approx (2003)
• Islamabad 1000,000 approx (2003)

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FIVE MAJOR ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS OF THE CITY

• 1. High Particulate Matter (PM)
• 2. High NOx_
• 3. High content of lead
• 4. SOx Concentration
• 5. CO Concentration

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FIVE SAMPLING SITES
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FIVE MAJOR ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS OF THE CITY

• Among the air pollutants, extremely high value is
  shown for SPM and the secondary high value is for
  NOx data.
• Rest of the parameters such as SO2, CO and O3
  generally do not exceed the AQS values.
• Among the 2 cities investigated, Islamabad shows
  lower concentration. The reason considered in
  case of high concentration of CO at Aabpara
  Chowk, IS the parking of the mobile station in
  the middle of slope on the road.

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FIVE MAJOR ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS OF THE CITY

• Aabpara cross have traffic signals at each corner
  and the vehicles after changing the signal
  crosses at the same time emit higher
  concentration of NOx while passing to the
  ascending slopes.
• The high concentration of NOx data also depends
  on the proportional increased rate by the number
  of vehicles.

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FIVE MAJOR ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS OF THE CITY

• 1. High Particulate Matter (PM)
• PM in twin cities is largely derived from
• vehicular and industrial emissions,
• burning of solid waste,
• brick kilns and
• natural dusts.
• A recently conducted ambient air quality study to
  examine the pollution levels in traffic congested
  areas in Rawalpindi, Islamabad revealed that the
  average suspended particulate matter in twin
  cities was 6.4 times higher than WHO guidelines
  and 3.8 times higher than Japanese guidelines.
• Japanese Standard at 200 µg/m3 (1 hr.) or WHO
  guideline at 120 µg/m3 (24 hrs.)

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SPM Data in Rawalpindi/Islamabad
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Study by SUPARCO
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FIVE MAJOR ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS OF THE CITY

• 2. High NOx
• It is a harmful gas among the air pollutants,
  therefore, the AQS value is 110 ppb for 1 hour
  and 40 60 ppb for 24 hours by WHO and Japanese
  standard.
• This investigation shows that 80 of the obtained
  data exceed Japanese standard and 30 of the data
  exceeded the WHO guideline.
• NO and NO2 occur mainly due to the combustion of
  fossil fuels. The sources of these gases in the
  atmosphere are the mobile emission and stationary
  sources, such as the boilers and furnaces of
  industrial activities.

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NO Data
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NOx Data
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Location
N
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FIVE MAJOR ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS OF THE CITY

• 3. High Lead
• High level of lead was found at Murree Road and
  Abpara Chowk
• Murree Road 10.23 ug/M3
• Abpara 10.93 ug/M3
• WHO 0.5-1.0 ug/M3

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FIVE MAJOR ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS OF THE CITY

• 4. SOx Concentration
• the concentration of SO2 was found lower than
  that of Japanese EAQS and WHO guidelines at all
  five points.

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SO2 Data
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Comparison of SO2 Data
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Comparison of SO2 Methods
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FIVE MAJOR ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS OF THE CITY

• 5. CO Concentration
• It is one of the emission gases from gasoline
  motor vehicles, therefore, it was expected higher
  concentration of CO on the roadside of sampling
  sites. On the contrary, the results of CO
  investigation were very low, that means the
  number of vehicles passing nearby the sampling
  points were in small numbers compared with other
  foreign cities.

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CO Data
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Comparison of CO Data
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Hourly data at Murree Road
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AIR POLLUTION IN THE CITY

• sources of air pollution
• vehicular emissions
• industrial emissions,
• burning of solid waste,
• brick kilns

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EFFECTS OF AIR POLLUTION

• Smog Large conc. Of PM in he atmosphere produce
  some general effects.
• Smoke and fumes tend to increase atmospheric
  turbidity reducing visibility
• Lung Diseases due to PM

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CITYS RESPONSE TO THE PROBLEM OF AIR POLLUTION

• City government level
• Civil Society/ NGOs level
• Litigation ( public interest)
• Federal Level support
• International support

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PROBLEMS WEAKNESSES

• Administrative/policing structure of the city
  government
• Financial resource
• Technical support
• Participatory support ( NGOs/ Civil Society

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National Cleaner Production Center for Fuels
Thank you for your attention