Visual pollution in Dhaka: A cause of health hazards and road accidents

Dhaka is a city struggling under the weight of multiple forms of pollution. Air pollution, noise pollution, water pollution, plastic waste, and hazardous chemicals have rightly received growing public attention. Yet one form of pollution remains largely ignored despite being present almost everywhere we look: visual pollution.

Look around Dhaka, and the evidence is difficult to miss. Giant billboards compete for attention with flashing digital screens. Roadsides are crowded with commercial signs, political posters and graffiti. Electric and internet cables hang in tangled masses. Construction materials occupy pavements. Uncollected waste piles up beside roads. Illegal structures, poorly designed signboards, excessive lighting and chaotic advertising further fragment the urban landscape.

The result is more than an unattractive city.

Dhaka’s visual environment is becoming a public health concern, a psychological burden and, increasingly, a road-safety problem. The issue deserves urgent attention from policymakers, city corporations, transport authorities, urban planners, advertisers and citizens.

The ESDO study exposes the scale of the problem. The Environment and Social Development Organization (ESDO) conducted a study in 2022 titled “Visual Pollution in the City of Dhaka: A Public Health, Environment and Traffic Distraction.” The findings were presented publicly in February 2023 and generated significant concern about the health and safety implications of uncontrolled visual clutter in the capital. (ESDO⁠)

The ESDO baseline survey involved 1,380 people in Dhaka, while health-related information was compiled from 27 hospitals and clinics in the city. According to the study, more than 24 percent of respondents experienced eye fatigue, while the impacts extended beyond the eyes to sleep, headaches, and psychological well-being. ESDO estimated that approximately 270,000 children in Dhaka experience or receive treatment for eye strain and severe headaches each year. (The Financial Express⁠)

The study also identified several specific manifestations of visual pollution: billboards, cable wires, power poles, excessive traffic signs, garbage dumps, graffiti, excessive artificial or neon lighting, and digital billboards. (ESDO⁠)

These findings are particularly worrying because children are among the most vulnerable groups. A child growing up surrounded by excessive visual clutter may gradually become accustomed to disorder as a normal feature of urban life. The damage is therefore not simply immediate physical discomfort. It may also affect how future generations understand public space, cleanliness, aesthetics, and civic responsibility.

One of the clearest indicators of the problem is the extraordinary growth of outdoor advertising.

According to the ESDO study, the number of billboards in Dhaka increased from 9,270 in 2019 to 13,997 in 2022, representing an increase of approximately 51 percent in only four years. (New Age⁠)
The problem becomes more serious with the rapid expansion of digital billboards.

Traditional static signs are already capable of distracting drivers when poorly located. Digital billboards introduce movement, changing images, intense colours and artificial illumination. Their fundamental purpose is to capture attention. But the same attention that advertisers want from drivers is precisely the attention drivers need to keep on the road.
This creates an obvious conflict between commercial visibility and public safety.

A driver approaching an intersection needs to process traffic signals, pedestrians, buses, motorcycles, rickshaws, lane movements, road signs and the actions of other vehicles. Adding a large animated screen to this visual field creates another competing stimulus.

A split-second glance may be harmless in one situation. At a busy intersection, however, that same glance can be enough to miss a pedestrian, traffic signal or suddenly braking vehicle.

Visual distraction can become a road-safety hazard. Road crashes in Dhaka have many causes. Speeding, reckless driving, overtaking, driving under the influence, poorly maintained vehicles, inadequate enforcement, unsafe road design and pedestrian behaviour all contribute to accidents.
Visual pollution should therefore not be presented as the sole cause of road crashes. But neither should it be dismissed.

ESDO identified visual pollution as an important contributor to road distraction and placed it alongside other major behavioural causes of crashes. The study also reported a sharp increase in deaths associated with road accidents, from 5,227 in 2019 to 8,800 in mid-2022, which it described as approximately a 40 percent increase. (ESDO⁠)

The relationship between visual pollution and accident mortality should be interpreted carefully. As one newspaper editorial noted, the study did not fully explain the methodology behind attributing the reported road-accident increase specifically to visual pollution. (The Financial Express⁠)

That methodological caution does not make the underlying concern irrelevant. It makes further research even more important.
Dhaka needs systematic studies examining whether digital advertisements, poorly placed billboards, excessive roadside signage and other visual distractions affect driver reaction time, lane discipline, speed, braking behaviour and pedestrian safety.

We should not wait for an accident to prove what a proper road-safety assessment could identify beforehand.

Visual pollution is also a psychological issue. ESDO’s findings indicated that approximately 18.72 percent of respondents experienced symptoms associated with an overstimulated nervous system, while 18.03 percent reported insomnia and 12.21 percent reported headaches. (New Age⁠)

The constant bombardment of information may contribute to fatigue and irritability. A city should provide visual cues that help people navigate their surroundings. Instead, Dhaka often presents an environment where everything appears to demand attention simultaneously.

The human brain must continually decide what to look at and what to ignore.

A flashing advertisement says: look at me.
A shop sign says: look at me.
A political poster says: look at me.
A digital screen changes colour and image: look at me.

A tangled collection of wires hangs above the road. Construction materials occupy the pavement. Garbage sits beside a busy intersection. The result is a city where visual attention is constantly being competed for.
This is particularly problematic for drivers, pedestrians, traffic police, cyclists and other people whose safety depends on maintaining situational awareness.

Perhaps the most disturbing finding from the ESDO study is the estimated 270,000 children affected by eye fatigue and severe headaches annually. (ESDO⁠)

Children cannot choose the visual environment in which they grow up. They travel to school through streets dominated by advertisements, wires, traffic signs and waste. They live in neighbourhoods where walls, buildings and public spaces may be covered with posters and commercial messages.

This raises a broader question: What kind of city are we creating for the next generation? Urban development should not mean filling every available surface with commercial messages.

Children need clean, safe and stimulating public spaces. They need trees, open areas, parks, pedestrian-friendly streets and visually coherent neighbourhoods. They should learn that public space belongs to everyone, not that every wall, pole and roadside is an advertising opportunity.

Visual pollution also affects the urban ecosystem The consequences are not limited to human beings. Excessive artificial lighting from billboards and illuminated advertising can alter the nighttime environment for birds, insects and other wildlife. Reports on the ESDO study noted concerns that illuminated billboards may interfere with the feeding and sleeping patterns of birds, insects and animals. (New Age⁠)

Dhaka’s remaining urban biodiversity is already under pressure from habitat loss, construction, traffic, waste and pollution. Excessive artificial lighting adds another layer of disturbance.

Urban ecology must therefore become part of the conversation about visual pollution. A healthy city is not one designed exclusively around vehicles and commercial activity. It must also provide space for people, trees, birds and other living organisms.

Visual pollution is a governance problem The persistence of visual pollution reflects more than individual behaviour. It exposes weaknesses in urban governance.

Bangladesh already has legal provisions dealing with unauthorised posters and graffiti. The Graffiti Writing and Poster Sticking Control Act 2012, for example, provides a framework for regulating unauthorized posters and graffiti. (The Daily Star⁠)

Yet laws alone are not enough. There must be consistent enforcement. City authorities should establish a comprehensive Visual Pollution Management Policy for Dhaka, integrating public health, urban planning, environmental protection and road safety.

Every billboard should have a clear permit, ownership record, structural safety certification and defined operating conditions. Digital billboards should have limits on brightness, flashing, animation and frequency of image changes, particularly at night.

Advertising should be prohibited where it obstructs traffic signals, road signs, pedestrian crossings or drivers’ sightlines. Most importantly, billboards and digital screens should not be permitted in locations where they create a measurable distraction risk.

Before approving major advertising structures, authorities should conduct visual safety audits. Such audits should examine whether advertisements obstruct traffic signs or signals; whether digital displays distract drivers; whether lighting creates glare; whether structures interfere with pedestrian visibility; whether billboards are positioned near accident-prone intersections; whether roadside construction materials obstruct sightlines; whether excessive signage creates information overload; and whether utility cables and other structures create visual and physical hazards.

The same principle should apply to major roads, flyovers, intersections and pedestrian crossings. Road safety cannot be separated from the visual environment surrounding the road.

The answer is not to eliminate advertising or commercial activity. Businesses need legitimate ways to communicate with consumers. The objective should instead be to establish clear boundaries between commercial interests and public safety.

Dhaka needs fewer illegal billboards, better-designed public signage, organised utility infrastructure, cleaner roadsides, controlled digital advertising and stronger protection for pedestrian spaces.
The city also needs more trees and visually calm public areas.

Green spaces provide relief from the intensity of the built environment. Trees, parks and open spaces are not luxuries. They contribute to psychological wellbeing, urban biodiversity and quality of life.

We should also begin measuring visual pollution systematically. Dhaka needs periodic monitoring of billboard density, digital advertising, nighttime illumination, roadside clutter and public exposure. Universities, medical institutions, transport agencies, city corporations and environmental organisations could jointly undertake longitudinal research to establish stronger evidence linking visual distraction with health outcomes and road safety.

The city we see is the city we become There is a deeper lesson here.
Environmental pollution is often understood as something entering our lungs, water or food. But pollution can also enter our visual and psychological environment.

What we see every day influences how we feel about where we live.
If disorder becomes permanent, people gradually stop noticing it. If illegal posters cover every wall, people eventually regard them as normal. If wires remain tangled for years, we stop asking why. If billboards dominate the skyline, we accept commercial clutter as the natural face of the city.
That is how environmental degradation becomes socially invisible.
ESDO’s study has performed an important public service by bringing visual pollution into the national conversation. Its findings should not be treated merely as an observation about Dhaka’s appearance. They should be treated as a starting point for stronger scientific investigation and policy action. (ESDO⁠)

Dhaka does not need more visual noise. It needs better urban design, stronger regulation and greater respect for human attention.
The ultimate question is simple: Do we want a city that constantly demands our attention, or a city that helps us live safely and peacefully?
The answer should be obvious. A healthy Dhaka must be breathable, walkable and safe. But it must also be visually healthy.

We need to clean not only the air we breathe and the water we drink, but also the visual environment in which we live. Because when the eyes are exhausted, the mind is disturbed, attention is distracted and roads become dangerous, visual pollution is no longer an aesthetic problem. It becomes a public health and road-safety emergency.