The operator of Lakhodair, a sanitary landfill site located in the northeastern part of Lahore, has confirmed that two plumes of methane (a greenhouse gas) that engulfed large parts of the provincial capital in August emanated from the landfill.
In an official statement, Muhammad Saad Senior Manager of the Lahore Waste Management Company which operates the Lakhodair landfill said that a number of factors were at play behind the abnormally high methane leakage from the landfill in August.
One of the biggest reasons for the methane emission was that a large number of offals of sacrificial animals were dumped into the landfill during of Eid-ul-Adha at the end of July. Then came the Monsoon season which only exacerbated the methane leakage from the landfill. Nearby industrial units also contributed significantly to the two plumes of methane that covered Lahore.
Last month, satellite images revealed that two plumes of methane caused by then-unidentified leakage engulfed major parts of Lahore. The first plume was spotted on 6 August with an emission rate of 126 metric tons per hour. The second plume was spotted on 31 August and was relatively smaller with an emission rate of 39 metric tons per hour.
Kayrros SAS, a Paris-based geo analytical firm, estimated that the methane leakage in Lahore would have the same impact on the environment as the annual emissions of around 8,000 cars in the UK.
Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas. Over the past two decades, methane’s impact on global warming has been 80 times more than that of carbon dioxide. This is why scientists around the world have been calling for reducing methane emissions to slow down climate change.
Some of the known sources of methane leakages are cattle farming, rice production, oil and gas facilities, and waste management.
Methane from landfill sites emanates when the deposited waste decomposes in the absence of oxygen. Its plume can develop for a time before escaping into the atmosphere.
However, it is extremely difficult to trace the origin of a leakage in a congested city like Lahore because determining its source consumes a lot of resources.
Via: BNN Bloomberg
