It was 1:15pm on 28 February, when a bus of route eight (Gabtoli to Jatrabari) started out from the College Gate bus stand near Shyamoli. The black smoke it emitted filled the entire area.
The passengers and pedestrians could hurriedly cover their eyes and mouths with their hands. Most of the buses on different routes in the capital have been similarly emitting black fumes due to lack of effective surveillance.
According to the Motor Vehicles Ordinance 1983, it is a punishable offence to emit any smoke hazardous to the health and environment. However, the roads in the capital are dominated nowadays by vehicles emitting black smoke. At a time, regular drives had been conducted to stop the emission of black smoke. However, after the coronavirus outbreak in the country in March last year, there have barely been any such drives.
The department of environment is in the charge of monitoring the emission of black smoke. And it is the responsiblity of Bangladesh Road Transport Association (BRTA) to conduct fitness tests.
However the BRTA authorities do not have any facility to measure the pollution caused by the black smoke emitted from vehicles. Despite having environmental circles, the two city corporations do not have any activity regarding this. Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) does not have any facility to measure the pollution by black smoke either.
Md Shahabuddin was waiting for a bus at the College Gate bus stand of Shyamoli on 28 February with his wife and daughter. He had come to Suhrawardy hospital for treatment. Shahabuddin said, “I have seen black smoke emitting from a lot of cars. I do not know how dangerous it is. Somebody must take the responsibility to monitor this.”
According to the data of BRTA, the number of registered vehicles in Dhaka city is over 1.6 million (16,52,323). There are 46,050 buses and mini-buses, 74,330 trucks and 809,189 motorcycles among these registered vehicles. In the past few days it was seen that black smoke was emitted more from the unfit buses on roads of the capital. The trucks which move at night are also major sources of black smoke emission.
Khandokar Enayet Ullah, general secretary of Dhaka Metropolitan Bus Owners’ Association, told Prothom Alo that meetings have been held with the transport owners to stop black smoke emission and letters have been sent in this regard. If any bus owner plies unfit vehicles on roads, the government agencies may take action against them.
Black smoke is mainly emitted from the unfit and old vehicles. BRTA provides the fitness certificates. BRTA chairman Nur Mohammad told Prothom Alo, black smoke related issues are technical and it cannot be determined by the naked eye. BRTA does not have any equipment to measure the pollution caused by black smoke. Discussions have been ongoing about procuring the required equipment from the Department of Environment. A public notice was issued in against taking unfit vehicles out on roads.
According to last year’s survey conducted by the air quality monitoring unit of Dhaka University, smoke from vehicles and industries is responsible for 50 per cent of the capital's air pollution. Smoke created from burning liquid fuel is responsible for this. For the last 12 years, we have been thinking that the brick kilns are the main source of air pollution.
According to the environmental department, 38 mobile courts have conducted drives against black smoke emission from June 2020 to January 2021. In these drives, vehicles were fined Tk 688,900 in total for emitting hazardous smoke.
Speaking to Prothom Alo, director of the Department of the Environment (monitoring and enforcement), Rubina Ferdous said that there has been a plan to increase drives against black smoke emission in future.
Several other harmful elements, including small particles, sulfur-dioxide, nitrogen-dioxide and mercury, are spreading in the air with the black smoke. According to the specialist physicians, the risk of lung, kidney and heart related complications have been increasing due to the effects of toxic elements of the black smoke. Apart from this, one can suffer from lung inflammation, pneumonia, and bronchitis, and children’s intellectual growth can be hampered because of the black smoke.
The two city corporations of Dhaka has their own environmental circles. However, they do not have any programme to control emission of black smoke.
Dhaka South City Corporation’s (DSCC) chief executive officer ABM Amin Ullah Nuri told Prothom Alo that there is no barrier to take action against black smoke emission. However, the city corporation does not have the facilities to measure the pollution. Tarik Bin Yusuf, the supervising co-coordinator of Dhaka North City Corporation’s environmental circle, said that the responsibility to stop black smoke emission lies with the Department of Environment and BRTA.
According to the law, the police also have the responsibility to stop black smoke emission. Police take action against vehicles for emitting black smoke from time to time.
Speaking to Prothom Alo, Monibur Rahman, additional commissioner (traffic) of DMP, said it is a punishable offence to emit black smoke as per the law. Whenever a black smoke emitting vehicle is noticed, action is taken readily. On 13 January 2020, the High Court issued a nine-point directive to prevent air pollution including cessation of the vehicles emitting black smoke. Later on 24 November, the court ordered for the implementation of the directives. The court passed these orders based on a writ submitted by environmental organisation Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh (HRPB).
A lawyer and the president of HRPB, Monjil Moshed told Prothom Alo that although there have been directives to stop black smoke emission, these are not implemented. The situation is getting worse day by day for the negligence of the concerned authorities. The situation will continue unless the concerned authorities are committed.
This report appeared in the print and online editions of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten in English by Ashish Basu