POLLUTION, especially air pollution, has for long been a major cause for concern for public health and yet, the authorities have consistently remained nonchalant to the issues. Air pollution has, meanwhile, been a threat to city dwellers as air quality in cities, especially Dhaka, has deteriorated. Certain city areas are more affected by air pollution. The photograph that 抖阴精品 published on October 29 shows a smoggy road at Shyampur in Dhaka where visibility reduction is alarmingly evident. About 200,000 premature deaths are attributed to air pollution every year. Moreover, air pollution shortens, as the Air Quality Life Index says, the life expectancy of an average Bangladeshi by 4.8 years. Some areas adjacent to Dhaka, such as Gazipur and Narsingdi, fare worse than others where air pollution shorten lives by more than six years. The index also shows that all of the 166.4 million people live in areas where the annual average particulate pollution level exceeds the WHO guideline and 96.8 per cent of the people live in regions that do not meet the national standard. Bangladesh has allowed levels of air pollutants higher than the World Health Organisation recommendation.
What is highly worrying in such a situation is that the government agencies have largely failed to contain air pollution and comply with the three High Court orders on air pollution control. The court directed the government to shut down brick kilns in and around the capital, ban black smoke-emitting and unfit vehicles, destroy vehicles that have served their shelf life and define their valid life spans, among others. The court also directed city authorities to ensure that owners of markets, shops and houses in Dhaka develop their own waste collection system for the final collection by city corporations. All the directives appear to have been largely ignored, leaving the quality of Dhaka鈥檚 air to deteriorate. Dhaka air scores around 200 in the index during most of the year. The score suggests that Dhaka鈥檚 air remains either unhealthy or very unhealthy for the large part of the year. The city authorities appear to have hardly been sincere about the issue. About 3,000 brick kilns run in and around the capital, keeping to the environment department, which claims to have recently shut down 700 brick kilns across the country. The government has spent a large amount of money on a number of projects, including the recently completed Tk 802.25 crore clean air and sustainable environment project, but they appear to have yielded no result.
The government should, therefore, own up to its failure, take up programmes that can yield results and comply with the court directives to lessen the burden of air pollution. The authorities should realise that air pollution is a threat to not only public health but also productivity and the economy. There is, therefore, no scope for compromise on this issue that so adversely affects all.