ISLAMABAD: The Ambassador of the United Arab Emirates in Islamabad His Excellency Hamad Obaid Al Zaabi said that the fruits of the first artificial rain project of the UAE to mitigate the dangerous effects of the smog affecting Lahore have achieved successes and positive results so far and will continue in the coming weeks, Ambassador Al Zaabi said that the artificial rain project in Pakistan specifically in the Lahore city came under the direct patronage and supervision of His Highness Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Vice President of the UAE, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of presidential court, and through this project unprecedented scientific successes were achieved.
The UAE ambassador spoke about the artificial rain project in Pakistan and said that it comes in a step to combat high levels of air pollution, as the residents of Lahore city witnessed the first artificial rain on 16 December, and will continue in coming week, the initiative which was conducted by the government of the United Arab Emirates in cooperation with the Federal government of Pakistan and the government of Punjab province aims to mitigate the dangerous effects of smog affecting the city and its population of more than 22 million people, at the same time artificial rain was implemented which covered 10 – 15 kilometers area in Lahore.
The Ambassador of the United Arab Emirates in Islamabad announced the success of the artificial rain experiment and said: “This plan was implemented precisely in specific areas of Lahore, and light rain fell in 10 targeted areas.” the cloud seeding process included the deployment of 48 flames to stimulate rain, Ambassador Al Zaabi stressed that the UAE’s support for the artificial rain project initiative is extremely important, as only water was used which does not pose any harm to health, he gave the example of Dubai and some American states that conducted rain seeding operations.
Ambassador Hamad Al Zaabi spoke about the UAE Research Program for Rain Enhancement Science and said that it is an international research initiative launched by His Highness Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Vice President of the UAE, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of presidential court in 2015 to develop rain enhancement research in the UAE and support research proposals and innovative technologies that contribute to addressing water scarcity issues in arid and semi-arid regions by providing a financial grant to selected teams of researchers and scientists.
He pointed out that the Emirates Research Program for Rain Enhancement Science selects every two years two of the most distinguished research projects in the field of rain enhancement from all over the world, and provides a financial grant of up to 1.5 million US dollars for each research project distributed over 3 years at a rate of 550 thousand dollars per year, Ambassador Hamad Al Zaabi said that the program has so far provided financial grants worth more than $18 million to implement 11 innovative research projects in the field of rain enhancement, these projects work to develop new sciences and technologies to support rain enhancement operations in the United Arab Emirates and also contribute for deepening global knowledge of rain enhancement science and technology.
The Ambassador spoke about artificial cloud seeding and said that it is a process of deliberate change in the weather, whereby clouds are stimulated to drop their hidden water or frozen snow over specific geographical areas through specific chemical or biological factors that are dropped into the cloud mass to increase the density of cloud and water vapor that later falls in the form of rain and snow, and the artificial cloud seeding is used for the following goals: 1- increasing rainfall in areas that do not witness much rainfall, 2- cleaning or cooling the air, 3- preventing storms and reducing hurricanes as a result of early rainfall, 4- reducing the heat of the sun by increasing the mass of clouds.
At the conclusion of his talk about the cooperation project between the UAE and Pakistan, Ambassador Al Zaabi said that the process of artificial rain seeding is carried out by planting clouds for condensation or catalysts for rainfall, as these catalysts are planted by aircraft or ground cannons using various materials such as dry ice, solid carbon dioxide, silver iodide, calcium chloride, sodium chloride, and water mist, and the process in which silver iodide is used to control the acceleration of the rainfall process is considered the most famous process used for artificial cloud seeding, as it works to increase the density of clouds above their normal rate which makes the ice crystals inside the clouds freeze and then fall due to their weight to the ground before the rising heat returns them near the surface to its liquid state again, and to enhance the guarantee of the success of the artificial cloud seeding process, several natural factors must be present that help in cloud seeding such as the presence of cumulus clouds, the presence of rising air, determining the appropriate time for cloud seeding, and knowing the appropriate amount of stimulating materials that must be injected into the clouds.
