By Usman Shahid
In Lahore, smog does not arrive as a warning; you just feel it when it makes breathing difficult.
A traffic warden at Liberty Chowk told me, He feels like he is standing near a burning building every morning; because of how smog disturbs his view. By late October and November, people begin to recognize the same signs every year. The burning eyes, the dry cough, the grey light in the afternoon, the schools closing again, the masks returning again, the air-quality apps showing numbers that feel less like data and more like a warning.
Lahore became a global symbol of toxic air. Reuters, cited IQAir, provincial authorities and reported an air quality index of 1,165 which made Lahore the world’s most polluted city that day. A few days earlier, officials said parts of the city near the India-Pakistan border had touched a reading of around 1,900. If we go further south, Multan also entered the emergency zone of Punjab’s smog season. It was reported that readings went far beyond the hazardous range.
The Punjab government’s response has included closures, restrictions and a “smog war room” to coordinate departments. But we saw the most visible image of official action in the form of anti-smog guns: these were truck-mounted machines which were spraying fine mist into the air. In October 2025, officials said 15 such units had been deployed in Lahore for the first time that winter.
This idea is simple enough. Means spray water into polluted air and make dust particles settle. It shows that the state is doing something. But the problem is that Lahore’s smog is not just dust sitting over one road, it’s in the environment.
Source: Workers from the Environmental Protection Agency operate an anti-smog gun on The Mall, as smog began to manifest across parts of Punjab. ( Courtesy: Dawn news )
The science behind fog cannons is narrower than the politics around them. Water spray systems can help suppress granular dust at construction sites, bare roads and other local sources. That matters, especially in a city where construction debris is there broken roads and unchecked urban expansion all feed the winter pollution cycle. But heavy dust is not the same as citywide PM2.5 smog.
PM2.5 is the more dangerous fraction of particulate pollution because it is fine enough to enter deep into the lungs and in some cases, move into the bloodstream. It does not behave like visible roadside dust. It is produced continuously by vehicles, industry, diesel generators, low-quality fuels, waste burning and crop residue burning. During winter temperature, these pollutants are trapped close to the ground. I would say; a few trucks to spray mist through selected routes, it cannot do any better at the scale of a city which has more than 13 million people.
That is why the question is not whether anti-smog guns do anything. They probably do something, somewhere and for a short time. I believe we should focus on whether they do enough to deserve political attention they receive. Then health cost is also there. In November 2024, the Associated Press reported that more than 1.8 million people had visited hospitals and private clinics in smog-hit districts of Punjab in just one month. And most sufferings were from respiratory illness or burning eyes.
UNICEF warned that the health of 11 million children in Punjab was at risk because of hazardous air. These are the human evidence of a policy failure that is repeated every winter.
The explanation of Punjab government regarding smog, points to the same structural causes every year: vehicle emissions, industrial smoke, construction dust and crop burning. Yet the response becomes seasonal and performative. For example, schools get closed after the air becomes dangerous and masks are advised after the AQI has crossed emergency levels. Then the water cannons, these are easy to photograph and easy to defend.
Abid Omar, who is founder of the Pakistan Air Quality Initiative. He has long argued that Pakistan’s air crisis requires boring, difficult reforms like fuel quality, emissions monitor, real-time data and enforcement against crop burning. None of these reforms looks difficult to implement on camera. But they require institutions that can act before crisis appears. And Anti-smog guns expose that gap.
For Pakistan, this matters not just in Lahore. Because, whole country enters climate negotiations and we require finance, technology and support. As Pakistan contributes less than one percent of global greenhouse gas emissions but it remains deeply exposed to climate shocks, from floods to heatwaves to air pollution. At the same time, climate finance will not solve everything if local spending still favours visible machines rather than long-term regulation policies.
Usman Shahid Warraich is a scholar of international relations with a keen interest in climate security, environmental geopolitics and global climate governance. Their writing focuses on how climate change reshapes strategic vulnerabilities in the developing world, with a particular focus on Pakistan. Usman.shahid83@ucp.edu.pk
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