TEHRAN — After a week of suffering from suffocating air pollution people in the metropolis of Tehran can finally breathe clean air on the first day of winter. 

Temporary and ineffective solutions such as shutting down the school didn’t change the pollutant levels for a week in Tehran and the wind and rain eventually came to the rescue.

President Hassan Rouhani urged the ministries of industry, energy and oil as well as the department of environment to join hands to resolve the issue. 

“We are not alone, the whole world is struggling with the never-ending air pollution…, this is our responsibility to address the issue,” YJC quoted President Rouhani as saying. 

In the meantime chief the Department of Environment Isa Kalantari said that the gasoline and the cars are the main culprits of the air pollution in Tehran, “the administration have protested against the issue but can we ban the cars from the streets?”

“The fuel quality is poor and we only have to pray for the wind to come to the rescue,” the environment official said. 

The municipality emphasized the importance of developing the public transport, however, they stated that budget deficit is impeding the development of public transit.  

Councilors deemed the auto industry as the main reason for the exacerbating air pollution by producing substandard vehicles and called for reforms and even closure of the car manufacturing factories.

“Domestically produced vehicles are neither safe nor emission-free and car manufacturing factories must be shut down,” councilor Hassan Khalilabadi said on Thursday.  

As long as the industry ministry refuse to enforce the law which mandates car manufacturers to scrape two cars in exchange for each car they produce the situation won’t change, Khalilabadi regretted. Manufacturers’ refusal to obey the law adopted by the cabinet is a social oppression, he added. 

Everyone is either the evading the responsibility or handing it over but here’s the biggest question: how long should we pray for the wind or the rain to clear the air while we have no strong will or decisive plan to tackle it? 

MQ/MG