Our capital city Dhaka appears rather reluctant to exit from the list of most polluted cities on earth any time soon.
Once more, the city has ranked second on the list of cities worldwide with the worst air quality for the second consecutive day. With an AQI score of 263 at 8:55 AM on Monday morning, Dhakas air was classified as extremely unhealthy. Indias Kolkata, Ghanas Accra and Pakistans Lahore occupied the first, third and fourth spots on the list respectively, with AQI scores of 280, 230 and 192.
However, the AQI, an index for reporting daily air quality, informs people how clean or polluted the air of a certain city is and what associated health effects might be a concern for them. When the AQI value for particle pollution is between 101 and 150, air quality is considered unhealthy for sensitive groups, between 150 and 200 is unhealthy, between 201 and 300 is said to be very unhealthy, while a reading of 301+ is considered hazardous, posing serious health risks to residents.
It is disturbing since Dhaka has long been grappling with air pollution. The citys air quality habitually turns particularly harmful in winter and improves moderately during the monsoon because of the rains. And the causes behind this steady and growing pollution are not new.
Understandably, there are two major sources of air pollution in Bangladesh: Vehicular emission and industrial emission. Both are heavily concentrated in our cities. Moreover, there are innumerable legally and illegally operating brick kilns operating seasonally, mainly in dry season all over Bangladesh. Moreover, a new pollutant which has been added in the list in the past decade is huge and indescribable dust particles or particulate matter released in the air from under-construction infrastructure development projects in Dhaka.
For a clearer understanding, particulate matter is the sum of all solid and liquid particles suspended in air, many of which are hazardous. This complex mixture in Dhakas air includes both organic and inorganic particles such as dust, pollen, soot, smoke, and liquid droplets.
While the dry winter season is one reason behind the alarming level of AQI in Dhakas air, all other factors are not unknown.
The point, however, Having laws and policies to curb air pollution is not enough-they have to be implemented effectively, without third-party interference and as soon as possible.
Unless the governments health and environment authorities concerned take urgent measures to deter growing air pollution , we fear, Dhaka may fast turn into an unliveable city.
Not to mention, the economic cost of air pollution is also very high. By increasing health costs and reducing peoples ability to work, it openly affects the total economic output and GDP growth.
We would advise the government to immediately adopt the command-and-control approach, through which the government can directly control and reduce man-made pollution.
In conclusion, enough options have been penned, opined, discussed and analysed to address Dhakas perilous air pollution , but little have been done so far.
We are worried.
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