সহকারী অধ্যাপক
২৯ মার্চ, ২০২৩ ০৭:৪৬ অপরাহ্ণ
Bangladesh needs urgent action to curb air pollution
Bangladesh needs urgent action to curb air
pollution
A new World Bank (WB)
report shows that there are economically feasible, cost-effective solutions to
achieve clean air in the South Asia region, but this requires countries to
coordinate policies and investments.
South Asia is home to nine of the world's 10
cities with the worst air pollution, and Dhaka is one of them.
The report said air pollution is responsible for
about 20 percent of the total premature deaths in Bangladesh.
The report titled "Striving for Clean Air:
Air Pollution and Public Health in South Asia," presented today in Dhaka,
says concentrations of fine particulate matter such as soot and small dust
(PM2.5) in some of the region's most densely populated and poor areas are up to
20 times higher than WHO standard (5 µg/m?).
In South Asia, it causes an estimated two
million premature deaths each year and incurs significant economic costs.
Exposure to such extreme air pollution has impacts ranging from stunting and
reduced cognitive development in children, to respiratory infections and chronic
and debilitating diseases.
This drives up healthcare costs, lowers a
country's productive capacity, and leads to lost days worked, said a press
release here today.
"Air pollution creates a serious
threat to public health and has major consequences on economic growth,"
said Abdoulaye Seck, WB country director for Bangladesh and Bhutan.
"Evidence shows that with commitment, the
right actions, and policies, it is possible to tackle air pollution. Bangladesh
has already taken steps to improve air quality management, including the
approval of the Air Pollution Control Rules. Along with strong national
actions, transboundary solutions will be important to curb air pollution.
Through analytical work and new investments, the World Bank is helping Bangladesh
reduce the air pollution," he added.
Air pollution travels long distances,
crossing national boundaries-and gets trapped in large "airsheds"
that are shaped by climatology and geography.
The report identifies six major airsheds in
South Asia where spatial interdependence in air quality is high. Bangladesh,
India, Nepal, and Pakistan, share a common airshed that spans the Indo Gangetic
Plain.
Particulate matter in each airshed comes from
various sources and locations, for example, in many cities, such as Dhaka,
Kathmandu and Colombo, only one-third of the air pollution originates within
the city.
Recognizing the transboundary nature of air
pollution, four South Asian nations-- Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan--
for the first time joined together to draw up the Kathmandu Roadmap for
improving air quality in the Indo-Gangetic Plain and Himalayan Foothills.
"Air pollution is not limited to a city,
state, or national boundaries- it is transboundary in nature," said Cecile
Fruman, WB director for Regional Integration for South Asia.
Bangladesh and a few other South Asian countries
have adopted policies to help improve air quality. But, along with taking
action at the district and country level, it is also urgent that coordinated
transboundary actions are taken with the neighboring countries.
The report shows that current policy measures
focused on power plants, large factories and transportation will only be
partially successful in reducing PM2.5 concentrations across South Asia even if
fully implemented.
To achieve greater progress, the focus of
policymakers should expand into other sectors, particularly small
manufacturing, agriculture, residential cooking and waste management.
The report analyzes four scenarios to reduce air
pollution with varying degrees of policy implementation and cooperation among
countries.
The most cost-effective scenario, which calls
for full coordination between airsheds, would cut the average exposure of PM2.5
in South Asia to 30 µg/m³ at
a cost of US$278 million per µg/m? of reduced
exposure and save more than 750,000 lives annually.
To this end, the report offers a three-phased
roadmap:
Phase 1: Sets the condition for airshed wide
coordination by expanding the monitoring of air pollution beyond the big
cities, sharing data with the
public, creating or strengthening credible
scientific institutes that analyze airsheds, and taking a whole-of-government
approach.
Phase 2: Abatement interventions are broadened
beyond the traditional targets of power plants, large factories and
transportation. During this phase major
progress can be made in reducing air pollution
from agriculture, solid waste management, cookstoves, brick kilns, and other
small firms. At the same time, airshed-wide standards can be introduced.
Phase 3: Economic incentives are fine-tuned to
enable private-sector solutions, to address distributional impacts, and to
exploit synergies with climate change policies. In this phase trading of
emission permits can also be introduced to optimize abatement across jurisdictions
and firms.