When will the air pollution and environment of Dhaka be better?
Even after half a century of independence, the environmental condition of Dhaka is deplorable due to a lack of proper planning.
Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, is at the top of the list of unclean, uninhabitable, untidy, polluted and unhappy cities worldwide. Dhaka is also at the bottom of the world city’s list, considering 30 criteria, including stability, healthcare, culture, environment, education, industrialization, infrastructure.
Settlement is the biggest problem in Dhaka. According to the government, about 46,000 people live in Dhaka per square kilometre, but the actual number is much higher.
Thousands of people are coming to Dhaka every day in search of education and livelihood. Since all the government offices, courts, banks, garment factories, head offices of industrial establishments are heading towards Dhaka; this situation got created.
The UN-Habitat study reported “Dhaka” as the most densely populated city in the world. Dhaka’s roads, traffic jams, gas or WASA water system, are not like megacities.
As a result, soil pollution, noise pollution, water pollution and air pollution are increasing. As the rate of air pollution in the city is rising, it is having a severe impact on the lives of city dwellers.
Air pollution is the fourth leading cause of death worldwide. The average life expectancy of human beings is declining by about three years only due to air pollution. Every year, more than 122,400 peoples die in the country due to air pollution alone, of which the infant mortality rate is the highest.
A 2020 study by the National Institute of Preventive and Social Medicine (NIPSOM) found that 49 per cent of children who went to Dhaka Medical College Hospital for treatment in the four months from November to February had respiratory problems.
At that time, dust and pollution usually increased in the air of the capital. The level of air pollution in Dhaka got known from international research. Dhaka has ranked first, second or third in the air pollution list for the last few years.
According to the report of the Air Quality Monitoring Center of the Department of Environment’s “Clean Air and Sustainable Development Project”, the air in the capital was dangerous for 165 days in 2014.
In 2015, the level of pollution increased by 178 days. In Dhaka, the Air Quality was most polluted in 192 days in 2016, 212 days in 2017, 236 days in 2018 and 283 days in 2019.
Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, was in the first position on the list of the world’s polluted cities in 2020 and 2021.
Experts say, “The cause of air pollution is brick kilns, industrial and vehicle fumes inside the country, black smoke from expired vehicles, garbage from about 4 million stoves in slums, cooking fuels with charcoal and kerosene, thousands of trucks and long-distance fumes from outside Dhaka.
Moreover, the air here got polluted by road excavations and construction dust and cross-border air pollution. Unplanned infrastructure getting built, no rules are getting obeyed. Dust and cement are getting kept in open space. As a result, a lot of dust getting mixed in the air from there.”
The lack of oversight by the administration is also one of the causes of air pollution. The honourable High Court of Bangladesh had more than once expressed frustration over the prevention of air pollution in Dhaka and summoned the secretaries of the two city corporations of Dhaka and the director-general of the environment department.
Various attempts got made to implement multiple plans to prevent air pollution, but no fruitful outcome came. Air pollution is not just a social or state problem; it affects the whole world.
As a result of air pollution, the ozone layer in the atmosphere becomes thinner, and the earth’s temperature gradually rises — which become the cause of global climate change.
As a result of these terrible natural fires, untimely floods, tidal surges, and other natural calamities have occurred in different countries. Only awareness can slow down this dreadful crisis. So, everyone must come forward from their position to prevent air pollution.
