Air Pollution in Dhaka City :

Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh (location 23.42N and 90.22E) has an estimated population of more than 8 million. Air pollution has emerged as a serious problem in the city. Blackenning of the city air and reduced visibility can be observed in some areas at times even with unaided eyes. Episodes of choking smells and irriatating eyes are common. The weather of Dhaka is tropical with lowest temperature varying between 54-790F and highest between 77-950F. During mansoon (June-August), there is very high precipitation of rainfall being on the average greater than 30 cm per month. During winter (November-January), there is hardly any rainfall (<2 cm per month) and there is very little wind. Atmospheric inversion manisfested by fog happens quite often. Rest of the year (February-May, September-October) has rainfall between the two extremes.

Types of air pollution

Gaseous substances Gases, vapors SOx, NOx, CO, Ozone, NH3 Particulate matter Dust, fly ash, smoke, shoot, droplets, mist, fog, fumes, aerosol

Sources of air pollution

Road dust Small manufacturing facilities Industries Open burning

Reference:
1. Khaliquzzaman M. Objectives, structures and expected follow-up. Paper preseneted at the Consultative Meeting on Integrated approach to vehicular air pollution control in Dhaka held between April 26-27, 1998 jointly by World Bank and Department of Environment, Government of Bangladesh.

2. Traffic Jam of Dhaka, Bangladesh

Dhaka is a mega city. More than twelve million people live here. Day by day the number is increasing and most part of Dhaka is badly affected by the population growth. More than 7 hundred thousand rickshaws ply the city road, but only 75 thousand have legal number. This huge number of rickshaws is creating traffic jam. I. Drivers dont comply with traffic rules. II. Allegations of police support to makeshift shops on footpaths and street sidelines and illegal automobile and rickshaw parking, which occupy more than a third of the streets. III. Some police officers are busy for extracting money for allowing illegal parking. IV. Lack of automatic traffic signals, slow-moving illegal rickshaws and rail crossings are also causing serious traffic jam. Many roads of Dhaka city are not spacious according to the necessity. As aresult, traffic jam occurs very now and then in the congested areas even of the highways. Overtaking tendency is another reason which causes traffic jam. Moreover, our traffic system is not so modern and the number of traffic police is insufficient. It is a matter of shame that some so-called politicians., student leaders and selfish persons also create traffic jam in order to fulfill their evil desires Rickshaws also reate traffic jam.

The following remedial measures can be adopted for eliminating the traffic jam: I. Stricter laws need to be enforced to maintain discipline. II. The number of mobile courts and checkpoints should be increased III. Harsh punishment must be imposed on those law enforcing members who does not carry out their duty. IV. The signal post should be constructed as early as possible. V. The awareness campaign should be launched which will feature community level meetings, opinion pools, roadside banners, leaflets and posters, mass media advertisement and public announcement to build awareness about making road free from rickshaws. VI. Rickshaws should be banned from the roads such as Rokeya Sarani-Mirpur 10Farmgate, Pragati Sarani-Baridhara-Badda-Mouchak,New Eskaton RoadBanglamotor-Mouchak-Rafarbagh Crossing and Techical crossing-Mirpur-1Mipur 2 and Azimpur to Tikatauli, Purana Purana Paltan to Sodarghat via NorthSouth road also. VII. According to Dhaka City Corporation (DCC), 77,000 rickshaws and 10,000 vans are registered but about three lakh rickshaws ply the streets. So the authorities need to evict illegal rickshaws.

WASTE MANAGEMENT
Each day Dhaka city is producing over 3000 tons of household waste. On the other hand Dhaka City Corporation collects almost less then half of it. The rest remains on roadsides, open areas. So, most of the urban bodies are finding it very difficult to keep pace with the demand for adequate solid waste management. Solid waste is any garbage, refuse, sludge, or other discarded material, including solid, liquid, semi-solid or contained gaseous material resulting from industrial, commercial mining, or agriculture operations or from community activities.

Table-1:Growth in solid waste generation in urban cities of Bangladesh. Year

Total Urban Population

Urban Population (% Total)

Waste Generation rate (KG/cap/da y) 0.49** 0.5*** 0.5*** 0.6**

Total Waste Generation (Tone/day) 98,73.5 11,695 16,382 47,064 Bangladesh (Dhaka)

1991 2001 2004 2025

20872204 28808477 32765152 78440000

20.15 23.39 25.08 40.0

Table-2: Nature of waste composition in Bangladesh. Waste Composition Food & Vegetable waste Paper products Plastics Metals Glass and Ceramics Wood Garden Waste Other (Stone, dirt etc.) Moisture 70 4 5 0.13 0.25 0.16 11 5 65

(% by weight)