REPEATED court interventions and an apparent unwillingness of relevant public agencies to execute whatever plans that the government has made to contain air pollution over the years have fallen flat. A report of the Swiss air technology company IQAir, which monitors the quality of air with 40,000 monitoring stations across 8,954 locations in 138 countries, territories and regions, has said that Dhaka was the world鈥檚 third most polluted metropolitan area in 2024, after the Indian capital of New Delhi, which has come first, and Chad鈥檚 N鈥橠jamena, which has come second. The 2024 World Air Quality Report ranks Dhaka with an annual average PM2.5 reading of 78.0. The reading is more than 15 times higher than the WHO PM2.5 annual guideline. PM2.5, fine particulate matter of 2.5 micrometers or less in diameter, is the most dangerous pollutant. It can penetrate the lung barrier and enter the blood system. It can cause cardiovascular and respiratory disease and cancers.
The situation has, in fact, remained almost the same during five previous years, with a reading of 80.2 in 2023, 65.8 in 2022, 78.1 in 2021, 77.1 in 2020 and 83.3 in 2019, as the historic air quality information of IQAir shows. All this suggests that earlier efforts to contain air pollution have either been flawed or not executed. But the tale of air pollution does not stop here. The 2024 report also says that Bangladesh has come second in the five most polluted countries. Chad with a reading of 91.8, which is more than 18 times higher than the WHO annual guideline, tops the list. Pakistan with a reading of 73.7 has come third, the Democratic Republic of Congo with a 58.2 reading has come fourth and India with a reading of 50.6, which is more than 10 times higher than the WHO annual guideline, has come fifth. The situation is, no doubt, grave as air pollution, both atmospheric and domestic, and was the main environmental risks to health in 2021, responsible for 8.1 million premature death worldwide. It appears that the government needs to act now on multiple fronts involving transport, energy, waste management, urban planning and agriculture sectors.
Whilst the government needs to set targets to meet the WHO air quality standards to strengthen the mandate to act now, it should on its own measure the air quality, target diesel and petrol vehicle pollution, set vehicle emission standards for zones, drive a shift from personal vehicle use to public transport, introduce financial incentives, decarbonise the electricity grid, focus on renewable energy and minimise the burning of solid fuels and wastes. The sooner the government does all this to contain air pollution, the better.