No end to Dhaka’s acute air pollution

Our country needs no introduction when it comes to air pollution, and Dhaka in particular has occupied the top positions as one of the most polluted cities for well over a decade.

However, once again Dhaka has been ranked as the second most polluted city in the world last Thursday. The city's air quality index (AQI) on that day was recorded at 258 at 9.42am, equivalent of 'poor' or 'very unhealthy'. Russia's Krasnoyarsk and India's Delhi occupied the first and third spots, with AQI scores of 290 and 257 respectively in the list of world cities with the worst air quality.

For a clearer understanding, AQI, an international benchmark for reporting daily air quality, is used by government agencies to inform people how clean or polluted the air of a certain city is, and what associated health effects might be a concern for them.
An AQI between 201 and 300 is said to be 'poor', while a reading of 301 to 400 is considered 'hazardous', posing serious health risks to residents. In addition, in our country, the AQI is based on five criteria pollutants -- Particulate Matter (PM10 and PM2.5), NO2, CO, SO2 and Ozone.

Nevertheless, Dhaka has long been grappling with air pollution issues. Its air quality usually turns unhealthy during the cold and dry winter season and improves during monsoon. What disturbs us frequently is that, our capital city is not too far behind from becoming the most polluted city on earth.

Not that we are uninformed about the key reasons behind this ominously growing air pollution. But the million dollar question here is that are we doing enough to control and reduce air pollution?

We have to take in the answer to be a clear "No".

A joint report by the Department of Environment (DoE) and the World Bank in March 2019 pointed out that the three main sources of air pollution in Dhaka are smoke discharged by brick kilns, fumes from vehicles and dust released from construction sites. Usually with the advent of winter, the city's air quality starts deteriorating sharply due to the massive discharge of pollutant particles from construction works, rundown roads, brick kilns and other sources.

Although the Coronavirus lockdown had initially resulted in an improvement in the air quality, pollution has shot up again as restrictions were eased.

Now, with winter further intensifying air pollution, the capital city's air poses a serious health hazard for its dwellers, even for those without pre-existing breathing difficulties. And with the pandemic still raging with the Omicron variant, we make an urgent call to our environment and law enforcement agencies to quick jump into action to bring down air pollution as swift possible.

Procrastination would only result in worsening the air pollution situation in Dhaka.