AS it appears dusts and other pollutants are increasingly destroying air quality in Dhaka city making Bangladesh the fourth country with worst urban air quality in the world. Industrial discharge from factories located around the city is also destroying the air quality affecting the lives of the city dwellers during dry season. Dust is mainly coming from building construction, earth digging for flyovers and metro-rail projects and such other activities. What is more worrying is that the air quality is far more unhealthy and even worse in Gazipur and Narayangonj and as per experts’ view about 90 percent of people in these cities are at risks of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases including lung cancer.
What is alarming is the rise in industrial smog strengthened by smoke from transport vehicles in city streets and brick kilns around the city. In absence of any strong regulatory measures and coordination among law enforcers, service sectors and utility providers, the air quality is at its worst now in the city making people’s life vulnerable to diseases such emphysema, bronchitis and asthma, common cold and coughs. Environmental activists say when the air pollution is at its highest level there is hardly any initiative visible to address it. The City managers have accepted the problem as a daily matter and as if has no remedy but to continue to suffer.
Surprisingly the serious health issue is missing from public debate. Meanwhile, as per data from the Department of Environment (DoE), the air pollution level (PM) from dusts runs up to 463 micrograms per cubic meter (mcm) in Dhaka city in dry season making it the highest at global standard which is congenial at 20mcm. The air pollution problem is taking its toll silently as some figure suggest over fifteen thousand people die every year due to poor air quality and 50 percent of it is children. Moreover several millions more suffer from associated diseases. Even long-term exposure to dust during pregnancy can lead to miscarriage or physical and/or mental anomalies of newborn. Houses on roadside even can’t open doors and windows while dusts spill up everywhere outside rendering people helpless and live with it. .
World Bank data the medical cost for treating airborne diseases runs up to $800 million annually for Dhaka city residents alone and the situation demands far-reaching goal setting to avoid creating unnecessary dusts and air pollution and manage it where it stands unavoidable. We believe that the government must take the issue seriously and put in place corrective measures to contain the spread of dusts and smokes to preserve the air quality in the city and around at permissible level. The two City Corporations have their own responsibility, in addition to playing the role of coordination to keep the air clean.
The authorities feel no accountability and that is the problem of mismanagement everywhere.
