Ban the two-stroke rickshaw

The just out Economic Survey of Pakistan notes that although air quality in many of our cities is bad, studies conducted in Lahore and Karachi show that carbon monoxide, cadmium and lead levels in these cities far exceed the internationally accepted threshold limits. An estimated 60 to 70 percent pollution in our cities is caused by vehicular emissions. And the biggest polluters are the 2-stroke rickshaws.While the introduction of Euro-II emission standards, starting next month, can only be welcomed, the measure by itself will not be enough to solve the problem. The government must do a lot more. First of all, there is need to create greater public awareness about the health hazards uncontrolled vehicular pollution creates. Second, the existing motor vehicle fitness regulations should be enforced effectively.Third, the rickshaws must be told to comply with cleaner air requirements or ordered off roads. The provincial governments must announce a cut-off date towards that end. In Punjab the previous government had actually given a deadline to rickshaw owners along with an offer of easy availability of loans to acquire green rickshaws, but its resolve to act fizzled out in the face of resistance from rickshaw owners. The present government has also tried and failed to do the needful.The last government had introduced green rickshaws under the president's and chief minister's schemes. These did not prove successful because of complaints about engineering defects. That is a valid issue and needs to be rectified by those concerned. But the rickshaw owners also cite economic reason to insist that if their old two-stroke vehicles are banned they would face economic hardship.Ordinarily, that should be an important consideration, not in the present case since it has to be weighed against the harm that is caused, on a continual basis, to the health of millions of city dwellers. The government, therefore, must refuse to be blackmailed into giving up doing something that is in the larger public interest. What it can, and should, do to encourage the changeover to green vehicles is to offer some sort of monetary concession - justifiable on account of its likely benefit in the form of reduced public health expenditure on pollution-related diseases.
Pakistan News