Dhaka has lost its short-lived status as a city of relatively clean air during the coronavirus-induced lockdown and the city’s air quality had been ranked the worst one only after Canada’s Vancouver on Saturday.
Smoke emitted by motor vehicles has been considered the major contributor to Dhaka’s air pollution for years. Experts have emphasised addressing all issues including smokefrom vehicles that aggravated the city’s environment.
In Dhaka, one person in every 100,000 people diesdue to air pollution. The city has ranked third in terms of health risks emanating from transport sector, a Bangla daily reported based on a study.
The death rate in Dhaka is 10 times higher than average rate of death caused by air pollution worldwide, according to the study by Environment International, a multi-disciplinary and open access journal.
Tanzanian city of Dar-es-Salaam sees two and a half deaths due to pollution in every 100,000 people and one such death is recorded per 100,000 in Blantyre, Malawi.
This kind of pollution reportedly kills one person per 1.0 million on average globally.
The study that covered the world's most air-polluted cities observed that higher pollution was detected in areas of higher traffic.
The air in Dhaka was found to be least polluted in the morning and most polluted in the evening.
“Overall air pollution in Dhaka is increasing, at an alarming rate…Pollution coming from vehicles plays a major part and unless we address these issues, risks will be higher in the coming days,” the newspaper quoted Chemistry Professor of Dhaka University Abdul Salam, a member of the multinational study group, as saying.
About 0.335 million vehicles ply in around 1,640-square-kilometre area.
