Visual Pollution in Dhaka city has been causing heavy damage to people's lives, including an estimated 270,000 children facing eye fatigue each year and road accidents rising by 40 per cent, says a study on Sunday.
Visual pollution is a major cause of vision and mental health problems. Every year, an estimated 270,000 children in Dhaka suffer from eye fatigue and severe headaches.
Environment and Social Development Organization (ESDO) conducted a study titled “Visual Pollution in The City of Dhaka: A Public Health, Environmental, and Traffic Distraction” and disclosed it at an event.
The baseline survey was conducted among 1380 people of Dhaka.
ESDO’s study found that visual pollution causes more than 24 per cent of people to suffer from eye fatigue among which children are the worst sufferers.
Each year approximately 270,000 children in Dhaka city receive treatment for suffering from eye strain and severe headaches, based on data compiled from 27 hospitals and clinics in the city of Dhaka.
Furthermore, the residents of Dhaka city who are suffering from mental illness have reached nearly 17 per cent, according to the study.
The study showed that the death rate due to road accidents increased by 40 per cent, which is 8,800 people in mid-2022 as opposed to 5,227 people in 2019.
Visual pollution has been identified as one of the top causes of road accidents, ranking alongside overtaking, reckless driving, and intoxicated driving.
The worst-case scenario is that 95.89 per cent of people aren't even aware that visual pollution has been affecting their lives seriously for a very long time, read the study.
Billboards, cables, wires, decaying structures, stacked-high construction materials, graffiti, etc. are just a few examples of the various irregular forms that are referred to as "visual pollution" and prevent people from fully appreciating a perspective or view.
Visual pollution describes the apparent deterioration and low aesthetic quality of natural and man-made landscapes close to people.
Because visual pollution disturbs both natural and man-made habitats, it interferes with a place's ability to be useful and enjoyable while also limiting the ability of the wider ecological system, which includes both humans and animals, to grow and flourish there, researchers who were involved in the study shared at the event.
During the media briefing, former Secretary and ESDO President Syed Marghub Murshed said the issue of visual pollution must be tackled in series.
He called on the government to act to protect public health and the environment from visual pollution.
Presenting the findings of the report ESDO Secretary General and Study Team Leader Shahriar Hossain said, children who have been exposed to visual pollution since childhood, are often devoid of subtle aesthetics, and they become accustomed to their unpleasant surroundings, losing their natural impulse to rectify them.
The study report has been presented by Maliha Hoque, Senior Program Associate of ESDO.
