Environmental experts have stressed the need for effective measures to protect Dhaka city dwellers from air pollution during the winter when it usually turns unhealthy and hazardous.
They suggest sweeping the city’s roads with water regularly, covering construction sites and materials, and stopping the movement of overloaded and unfit motor vehicles in the city.
The experts blame the authorities concerned for their lack of seriousness as no visible steps are seen yet to improve the air quality, which worsens terribly from November to February.
Ainun Nishat, Professor Emeritus at the Centre for Climate Change and Environmental Research of BRAC University, says dust particles from construction sites, earth filing and roads, black smoke from overloaded motor vehicles and traditional brick kilns located around Dhaka are largely responsible for the unhealthy air quality at the time.
Noting that traditional brick kilns are the major sources of air pollution, he advises the government to announce the brick manufactures as an industry in order to compel the traditional brick kilns to take environmental clearance.
“If we declare the brick kilns as an industrial enterprise, they will have to take environmental clearance. If so, traditional brick kilns can’t go in operation in case of harming the environment,” Prof Nishat tells UNB.
He said water should be sprayed on the Dhaka roads every day during the dry season to control air pollution. “The air pollution is there in almost every country and they’ve effort to minimize it. But we don’t have any effort to control it in our country,” he adds.
Prof Nishat says old motor vehicles having low efficiency burn huge petrol, which is also a major source of air pollution. So, the movement of such vehicles needs to be controlled, if we want to improve the air quality.
Prof Dr Ahmad Kamruzzaman Majumder, the director of Centre for Atmospheric Pollution Studies (CAPS) of Stamford University Bangladesh, thinks no visible steps are seen yet to check air pollution, though it worsened seriously with the advent of the dry season y due to the rise of dust particles in its air amid absence of rain.
Noting that there are directives from the High Court to spray waters in the city two times a day, he says there is lack of seriousness to implement the directives.
“A coordinated enforcement of environmental rules and guidelines is needed to protect the city’s dwellers from the unhealthy air,” notes Dr Majumder.
He says the authorities should have sincere and firm conviction to prevent industries, brick kilns and construction sites from polluting the environment.
MA Matin, Executive Vice president of Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon (Bapa), says the air pollution now is the major concern for public health as it claims the highest number of lives in the country replacing water pollution.
“No visible steps are seen from the authorities concerned to check dust in the city’s air,” he says, adding that there are some 10,000 brick kilns located around Dhaka city.
The environmental activist says the government should take a tough stance to check air pollution by ensuring the construction sites and materials are covered, effluent treatment plants in every industrial units and modernizing the brick kilns.
The Dhaka’s air quality terribly deteriorates during the winter particularly January-March every year.
In the January-March 2021, the air quality was hazardous for 12 days, very unhealthy for 58 days, unhealthy for 19 days and unhealthy for sensitive groups in one day in Dhaka, one of the most polluted cities in the world.
In the last six years (2016-2021), the average daily AQI score was 248.2 in January, 190 in February and 184.2 in March, according to the analysis of CAPS of Stamford University Bangladesh.
Besides, the average daily AQI is also high in every November and December. In the last six years, the average daily’s AQI score was 176.9 in November.
The air quality with AQI score 300+ is considered hazardous, the score 200-300 very unhealthy, the score 151-200 unhealthy, the score 101-150 unhealthy for sensitive groups (like children and pregnant women), the score 51-100 as moderate and the score less than 50 as good.
Air pollution kills an estimated seven million people worldwide every year, largely as a result of increased mortality from stroke, heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer and acute respiratory infections, as per the World Health Organization (WHO).
Source: United News of Bangladesh