The government on Tuesday asked people not to go outside without masks as air quality in Dhaka and elsewhere in Bangladesh deteriorated to an unhealthy and hazardous level.
The environment, forest and climate change ministry in its first ever advisory also advised individuals with sensitive health conditions or elderly and children to stay indoors unless absolutely necessary.
Environment activists blamed the failure of the authorities concerned to rectify pollution sources for the deterioration of the air quality as Dhaka kept ranking first among the cities with the most polluted air, threatening public health.
The Air Quality Index turned so bad that it exceeded the mark of 250 sometimes, the environment ministry said in the advisory when Dhaka鈥檚 AQI recorded 241 at 9:00am.
The index placed Dhaka as one of the top polluted cities of the world for a long time.
Center for Atmospheric Pollution Studies founding director and Stamford University Bangladesh environment science professor Ahmad Kamruzzaman Majumder said that average air pollution in the ountry jumped to AQI 171 in 2023 from 146 in 2017.听
National Institute of Diseases of the Chest and Hospital director Md Delwar Hossain said that with the rise of air pollution the number of patients and fatalities due to respiratory diseases, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, interstitial lung disease and asthma, among others, were on the rise.听
鈥榃e have no vacant beds now as the 670-bed specialised hospital is flooded with patients with respiratory diseases,鈥� he told 抖阴精品 on Tuesday.
In 2023, the institute treated 146,469 patients with various respiratory illnesses, with 1,046 fatalities.听
The figures were 110,774 and 877 respectively in 2000.
Several researches revealed the major sources of air pollution in Bangladesh that included construction sites, brick kilns, traffic, burning of solid waste, trans boundary pollution and industrial pollution.
Despite knowing the sources, the authority did not take any pragmatic steps to curb the pollution over the years while the sources became intense, increasing pollution, said green activists.
The environment ministry said that controlling air pollution was a time-consuming process. It urged all stakeholders to collaborate with the government in controlling air pollution.
Department of Environment director for air quality wing Md Ziaul Haque said that controlling air pollution was a multi-stakeholder issue.
Local government agencies, industry ministry, transport ministry are among other important entities that need to come forward to stop air pollution for some of the sources, he explained.
Officials concerned said that the department conducted several drives against the illegal brick fields and demolished or shut more than 500 brick fields in the past five years. Many of them, however, again went back to production for the lack of monitoring.
The authority did not take any punitive actions against the polluters like city corporations responsible for dust pollution from dilapidated roads and construction sites, renovation works and burning solid waste.
In 2023, the World Bank published a report titled Striving for Clean Air: Air Pollution and Public Health in South Asia that found that an estimated 30 per cent of pollution in Bangladesh鈥檚 largest cities originated in India.
To combat transboundary air pollution, four South Asian countries 鈥� Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan 鈥� agreed on the need to reduce national annual average PM 2.5 levels to 35 micrograms per cubic metre by 2030. The declaration was forged in Nepal in December 2022, during meetings facilitated by the World Bank and the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development.
None of the countries has, however, taken any pragmatic measures so far.
Children and elderly people are more vulnerable to air pollution, said Bangladesh Shishu Hospital and Institute director and professor Mahbubul Hoque.听
He said that they were receiving an additional number of child patients with respiratory tract infections everyday.
The hospital data showed that on average daily 130 patients were admitted to the hospital and another 1,200 patients were given treatment at the outpatient department of the 680-bed hospital.
Mahbubul suggested people to avoid pollution as much as possible and to use masks if they need to go outside.听
The Boston-based Health Effects Institute, in partnership with UNICEF, in a report published in June revealed alarming trends in air quality both in Bangladesh and worldwide, posing significant health risks.
According to the latest State of Global Air 2024 report, in 2021 alone, air pollution was responsible for over 2,35,000 deaths in Bangladesh, highlighting a significant public health challenge.听听
The report finds that children under five years are especially vulnerable, with health effects including premature birth, low birth weight, asthma, and lung diseases.
In several countries in Africa and in Asia, including Bangladesh, more than 40 per cent of all deaths from lower-respiratory-tract infections in children under five years are attributed to air pollution.听
In 2021, Bangladesh recorded over 19,000 deaths of children under five years due to air pollution-related conditions.听
In 2021, exposure to air pollution globally was linked to more than 7,00,000 deaths of children under five years, making it the second-leading risk factor for death globally for this age group, after malnutrition.听
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Vehicles move through flying dust exposing passengers to health hazard in Shyampur area of the capital on Tuesday.听 Sony Ramani