Gilgit Media Network (GMN) has aptly foregrounded today the expert opinion of a seasoned environmentalist—reportedly affiliated with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)—on the pernicious effects of fuels and materials currently being used by households and micro-industrial units in Gilgit. This expert assessment reinforces a critical but often overlooked truth: the worsening winter smog in Gilgit is not primarily a failure of awareness, but a manifestation of deep-rooted energy poverty.
While public education on environmental hazards is undoubtedly important, it becomes insufficient—and at times misplaced—when economically vulnerable households lack viable alternatives to endure prolonged sub-zero winters. The core issue, therefore, is not irresponsible behaviour; it is constrained choice imposed by poverty and structural neglect.
As documented in the Ibex Media report cited in an earlier piece dated 4 December 2025 and published on windowtogb.com, winter transforms Gilgit—and much of Gilgit-Baltistan—into a stagnant atmospheric basin. Temperature inversions trap smoke and fine particulate matter close to the ground, turning ordinary winter fog into a dense, toxic haze. The scientific mechanics behind this phenomenon are well established. What truly intensifies the crisis, however, is the forced dependence of low-income households on whatever combustible material is within reach.
Wood, raw coal, polythene bags, plastic packaging, agricultural residue, rubber scraps, and household garbage are burned not out of disregard for environmental or public health, but out of sheer necessity. In a region where temperatures remain below freezing for months, heating is not a matter of comfort—it is a matter of survival. When clean electricity, LPG, or safer heating technologies are either unavailable or prohibitively expensive, people resort to burning what they can.
This reality renders awareness campaigns, blanket bans, and punitive enforcement largely ineffective. In the absence of affordable and accessible clean-energy alternatives, such measures risk criminalising poverty rather than mitigating pollution.
What elevates this challenge from a local environmental concern to a national emergency is the unique ecological position of Gilgit-Baltistan. The region hosts some of the largest glacial reserves feeding the river systems of Pakistan. Black carbon released from household and micro-industrial burning does not remain suspended in the air; it settles on snow and ice, reducing reflectivity (albedo) and accelerating glacial melt. The repercussions extend far beyond Gilgit:
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increased water scarcity downstream,
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disrupted seasonal river flows,
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heightened risks of glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs), and
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long-term destabilisation of national water security.
Consequently, winter air pollution in Gilgit is inseparable from Pakistan’s hydrological future. It cannot be treated as a peripheral or purely regional issue; it demands federal ownership, coordination, and urgency.
The only sustainable response lies in direct state intervention through a clean-energy rescue framework. Emergency winter subsidies for electricity, LPG, pellet-based stoves, and solar-assisted heating must be extended to the poorest households, widows, remote settlements, and densely populated urban wards. Equally critical is a dedicated national initiative to stabilise winter electricity supply in Gilgit-Baltistan through expanded hydropower, micro-hydel projects, and renewable microgrids.
Likewise, banning plastic burning without first ensuring viable heating alternatives is destined to fail. Support must precede enforcement. Reliable municipal waste collection, subsidised clean-fuel briquettes, and penalties focused on commercial-scale or deliberate violators—rather than survival-driven households—offer a more humane and effective pathway.
Absent such interventions, Gilgit’s winter smog will continue to intensify, respiratory illnesses will rise, glaciers will darken and retreat faster, and the cumulative human, environmental, and economic costs will multiply.
In conclusion, Gilgit’s suffocating winter haze is not an atmospheric anomaly; it is the visible symptom of systemic energy deprivation. Clean air cannot be achieved without clean energy, and clean energy cannot remain beyond the reach of the poor. If Pakistan is serious about protecting its glaciers and safeguarding its water future, it must first protect its northern households from the cold.
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