Money spent, pollution doesn't decrease

Although the government has spent a large amount of money to decrease air pollution in the capital Dhaka, the city's children can't breathe clean air.

In fact, people of all ages have been suffering from pollution.

According to the environment department, the government has spent Tk 7.20 billion in two projects between 2000 and 2019 to prevent air pollution. Some small projects have been implemented too.

Ahead of undertaking the projects, it was said that the quality of air in the country is bad. The air will be freed from pollution through the implementation of the projects. However, Dhaka remains at the top of cities with the most polluted air in the world.  

According to air quality monitoring organisation IQAir, Dhaka ranked third on the list of cities with the most polluted air at 10:15pm on Friday. Bangladesh ranked 5th in the list of countries of most polluted air on average between 2018 and 2022.

Bangladesh has received a huge amount of money for the projects which are helpful to prevent air pollution.

According to reports published in an influential periodical the Lancet, Bangladesh received USD 2 billion for the implementation of such types of projects between 2017 and 2021, the current value of the money stands at Tk 220 billion.

The people working to prevent air pollution said focus has not been given on the management although money has been spent to prevent pollution. As a result, pollution couldn't be tackled. The environment department is working in name only. They could not implement their own guidelines. The court directives have not been followed.

In  2020, the High Court gave a nine-point directive to control air. Those include covering construction materials, spraying water and complying with the conditions of tender while digging. But these are not followed. There are no steps to enforce those.

The two ministers managing the environment ministry are the minister Md Shahab Uddin and deputy minister Habibun Nahar.
Speaking to Prothom Alo, Habibun Nahar said, "The environment department is supposed to deal with the air pollution. It is expected that they will work properly."

Particulate Matter (PM2.5 and 10) mainly causes air pollution. According to the air quality research centre of the chemistry department of Dhaka University, dust and smoke causes 50 per cent of air pollution. A major source of this dust is mismanaged construction and polluted air emitted from old vehicles. The source of 40 per cent of pollution is straw, wood, smoke and small objects. Besides, polluted air comes across the border.

A project named air quality management was taken up in 2000 to control air pollution. The environment department and other sources said the World Bank financed USD 3.5 million for this project.

According to the documents of the World Bank in its website, there are two parts in this project.

In one part of the project, it was said that steps will be taken to decrease the black smoke emitted from the vehicles. The steps include identifying high polluting motorised (two-stroke) vehicles and to remove those from the streets. In the second part, it was said that equipment will be installed to observe the quality of air.

The environment department sources said the project continued till 2007. Later, another project financed by the World Bank was undertaken with the title 'clean air and sustainable environment'. The World Bank provided USD 62 million for this project.

According to the document of the clean air project in the World Bank website, under this project steps were taken to increase capacity building of the environment department and emphasise on the management to decrease pollution from the vehicles.

The clean air project ended in 2019.The parliamentary standing committee on the environment, forest and climate change in a report on this project in 2019 said a total of Tk 2.21 billion was spent under the project till that period. Over half of this amount, Tk 1.23 billion, was spent for foreign tours of officials in the name of training, consultancy fee, purchasing vehicles and construction of buildings. Under the project, 296 officials availed foreign tours for training purposes in 10 years. One official availed foreign trips for 10 times.

The parliamentary standing committee on environment and forest chairman Saber Hossain Chowdhury, speaking to Prothom Alo, said "We have handed over our observations on the government's projects and initiative to the ministry. We hope they will take recommendations from there and initiate steps to prevent air pollution."

He said, "We hope the mistakes and irregularities that took place will not happen in future."

*This report, originally published in Prothom Alo print and online editions, has been rewritten in English by Rabiul Islam