For the last three or four days, the sun has not been shining brightly in the sky of Dhaka. The combination of dust, fog and smoke is creating haze. And the light of the sun cannot reach the ground through this hazysmoke. Somewhere in Dhaka city, due to smoke and dust, it was getting dark and even during the day, the headlights were on and the vehicles were moving. Various sources of air pollution including brick kilns, mega projects, black smoke from vehicles and incineration of waste are burning our foreheads along with local sources of inland air pollution. Likewise last few years, this year also Bangladesh is in the grip of cross-border Air Pollution. Some of them are due to natural causes and some are man-made or anthropogenic.
In addition to neighboring India, dust from Mongolia and Afghanistan, straw or hay burning smoke from China and India, smoke from coal and power plants, wood from rural areas of Nepal and Pakistan, hay burning smoke and dust are coming to Bangladesh. Even from far away Iran, smoke and dust can be seen floating in the air for thousands of kilometers. In neighboring India, farmers in Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh are constantly burning straw or hay openly. According to official estimates, there were more than 40,000 straw burning incidents in the Punjab province alone in the first week of December, 2020. Last year, there were 21,000 straw burning incidents in Punjab. That means twice as much straw has already been burned this year as last year. As a result, this air pollution is spreading in the sky of Bangladesh, 1400 km away from Delhi. It takes around 6-7days to cross Bangladesh border as air flow at the speed of 8-10km/hours at that time. The level of air pollution in Delhi on 1stDecemberwas much higher and it was reflected on 6th December in Dhaka. Air in most areas was very harmful to health.
About 40 per cent of Delhi’s air pollution comes from burning haystacks in Punjab and Haryana. More than 60 per cent farmers in Punjab and Haryana own limited and limited land. They do not have the economic means to rent a machine and waste straw. But they are also very angry with the central government’s agricultural laws. So many people are burning hay a lot. There is no government assistance for hay management. There is no adequate surveillance and no effective initiative to stop hay burning. The Indian Supreme Court has taken a stern stance on air pollution in Delhi. The apex court had constituted a one-member monitoring committee comprising former Justice MadanLokur. He reported to the Supreme Court about burning straw in Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. But many Indian pollution experts believe the authorities have failed to implement the ruling, despite the Supreme Court ruling more than once to stop burning straw. Many feel that the government does not take effective management measures because politicians do not realize the need for it.
Efforts to stop burning fruit straw have repeatedly failed. None of the parties in power at the center and in the concerned states and those in the opposition want to stop burning straw and hurt the farmers. As a result, it does not stop polluting the air in and around Delhi every year, but travels about 1400 km south-east, constantly polluting the skies of Bangladesh in winter or dry season. A study by the Government of Bangladesh’s Atomic Energy Center, Clarkson University and the University of Rochester in the United States found that one of the causes of air pollution in Bangladesh is cross-border airflow. Dust from the arid deserts of Iran, Mongolia and Afghanistan is mixed into the air. This dust enters India through the west. This polluted air started entering Bangladesh from November. About 60 to 70 per cent of the electricity generated in India and China comes from coal power plants. Alongside that the smoke and dust from the power plant is also playing a big role in the air pollution of Bangladesh.
The Indian subcontinent is already known as a polluted air zone. Nine of the top ten cities having the worst air quality are from this region. Fumes are usually found in the area due to burning of straw after harvesting rice in winter alongside of the vehicle fumes, cooking fumes, construction fumes and smoke from industrial. At the same time, due to the increase in the amount of water vapor in the weather, the combination of smoke and dust turns into polluted haze and covers the whole area like a sheet. For the last few years, such catastrophic conditions have occurred four to five times a year in winter. And each time it stays for about five-six days on average. Such a situation has arisen in the skies of Dhaka and other areas since December 5, 2020.
According to meteorologists, this year the clouds floating from the Mediterranean Sea came closer to the land of Bangladesh and became a bit drier. If there is more water vapor in this fair, it turns into rain. But after traveling about three and a half thousand kilometers, it has become low and stable. This stable or sheets of fog has spread from Delhi in India to Bihar in Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal and in Bangladesh. But after traveling about three and a half thousand kilometers, it became low and stable, as a result of which the air quality in most of the cities in this area, which is about three thousand kilometers wide, has deteriorated rapidly.
However, South Asian countries have taken many initiatives to control air pollution. But no country in the region will be free of air pollution if it does not stop cross-border air pollution. Therefore, the countries of South and Central Asia must take concerted efforts to prevent air pollution. For that joint and collaborative research as well as bilateral and multilateral agreement is desirable.
(Dr. Majumder is Founder and Director, Center for Atmospheric Pollution Studies (CAPS). E-mail: [email protected])
