Govt working on guidelines to limit Dhaka air pollution

The government is working on formulating a guideline to curb the world’s worst air pollution in and around Dhaka city.

In its second meeting at the Secretariat on Tuesday, a committee headed by Abdullah Al Mohsin Chowdhury, secretary to the environment, forest and climate change ministry, deliberated in the guideline to be drafted, according to a statement.

On Nov 26, the High Court ordered the government to form a high-powered committee headed by the environment secretary to formulate the guideline to prevent the air pollution in and around the capital.

The meeting discussed the construction of roads, several utility services and buildings, and covering the construction materials with temporary boundary during reconstruction and repair works, said the statement.

In the guideline, it also decided in principle to include faster completion of repairing damaged roads and sprinkling water twice a day during the construction works in the guideline.

The meeting also proposed a legal action against environmental pollutants by transporting sand, soil, cement and other construction materials on trucks or lorries and controlling the conservation and burning of municipal waste along the road to include in the policy.

The meeting recommended regularly conducting a mobile court to shut down the brick kilns and vehicles, which emit polluted smoke.

Due to the growing presence of dust in the air at the end of the monsoon season, the air quality in Dhaka turns worse in the winter season. During the last few years, the air quality of the city has deteriorated drastically due to the several ongoing infrastructure projects including metro rail.

As a direct effect of this, people, particularly the elderly and children, have been suffering from nose, eye and respiratory diseases.

The High Court also asked the committee that would compromise the chief executives of Dhaka North and South city corporations, WASA managing director, and representatives from BRTA and DESCO to report back to it within a month.

The Bangladesh capital is the top polluted city in the world, according to Air Quality Index released by the World Health Organisation recently.