What is the air quality in bangladesh?

Question

What is the air quality in bangladesh?

Answer 1

I lived my early life in Karachi for 19 years till 1973 where the downtown area "Saddar" and its surrounding places had eye-burning level of carbon-monoxide in the air. Same goes for New Delhi even in these days. The scenario was true for Bangladesh till early 2000 when you had to press hanky in your nose to avoid inhaling smoke-filled exhaust gasses emitting mostly from the diesel-driven busses and trucks which were very old and maintained shoddily. The 2-Stroke Petroil driven 3-wheelers (Auto-rickshaws) were the other criminal in the race to achieve notoriety when the un-burnt engine-oil those were mixed with the fuel (Petrol) would emit white smoke, but dangerous for the human inhalation.

After the installation of the last BNP led Government in Bangladesh in the year 2001, the then Environment & Forest Minister took personal initiative to ban 2-Stroke Auto-rickshaws (Scooters) and also Trucks and Buses which were 25 years old. The traffic police were empowered to seize vehicles emitting black-smoke and penalize them heavily.

These steps along with the measure to ban polythene shopping bags, shifting of pollutant industries like Tanneries and Brickfields outside the Dhaka and such cosmopolitan cities by giving them Tax Holidays ranging from 5 to 10 years, the then government changed the tide of Bangladesh being one of the most polluted air filled country to one of the least polluted countries among the South Asian nations now within last 5+ years time.

We in Bangladesh do have other types of pollution, like our canal and rivers are getting heavily polluted due to the lack of responsibilities among the textile dyeing mill owners as well as lack of civic-sense among vast majority of poor people living in slums and on the streets. The roadsides and even some prominent places do stink (emit a strong offensive smell) with human excreta (faeces and urine). There are almost negligible public toilets for the people of 150 Million crammed in 55,000 sq.mile area.

However, with frequent floods, cyclone and rains in Bangladesh the air quality gets back to almost zero-pollution by natural means and it is refreshing to breathe particularly after rainfalls, which we are now experiencing during monsoon season that started from July for the next 4-months.

Hope above helps.

Answer 2

Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries in the world and its urban areas suffer from air pollution of different levels and it is extremely high in the Dhaka city where the population is about 12 million in 300 km2 of surface area. It has been estimated that air pollution is causing about 15,000 premature deaths and several million cases of illness every year, in the Dhaka city alone.

so now u can imgaine yourself