In its desperate bid to contain air pollution, Bangladesh is implementing the “polluter pays principle” (PPP) starting 1 July this year, making it mandatory for industries to conduct round-the-clock emissions monitoring.
If emission readings exceed critical pollution levels, the polluting industries will be required to pay penalties.
To begin, the Department of Environment (DoE) will draw up a list of “top polluters” and require them to install sensors designed to monitor emissions from smokestacks.
This initiative comes at a time when worsening air quality in Bangladesh is taking a severe toll on public health. Polluted air is responsible for 159,000 premature deaths and 2.5 billion days of illness annually. In recent years, the economic cost of pollution-related health impacts has been estimated to range between Tk129,100 crore and Tk140,900 crore.
Eun Joo Allison Yi, a senior environment specialist at the World Bank, said yesterday that the goal is to make industries recognize the costs of their emissions and encourage compliance. The primary aim, she emphasized, is not to penalize them.
According to DoE and World Bank officials, the PPP will be gradually rolled out from 1 July this year as part of the five-year Phase 1 of the Bangladesh Clean Air Project (BCAP). Phase 2 of BCAP will focus on the transport sector, which is currently in poor condition and also a significant contributor to air pollution.
Following the Korea Environment Corporation (K-eco) model, Bangladesh’s DoE will mandate industries to install smokestack sensors linked to a central monitoring cell at the DoE. This will enable the government’s environmental agency to monitor real-time emissions across all industries.
Eun Joo Allison Yi expressed hope that, within two years, the initiative would reach a stage where many industries would voluntarily comply with emission standards, inspired by early adopters.
In the late 1990s, K-eco required industries to monitor their emissions and link the data to four regional control centers across South Korea. By 2008, it had enforced the PPP, gradually achieving significant success in emission compliance in this industrially developed Asian economy.
The PPP, or “polluter pays principle,” is an environmental law that holds polluters accountable for the damage they cause to the environment. It requires polluters to bear the costs of pollution prevention and control.
The Bangladesh government, with support from its development partners, will finance BCAP. This project is being launched just months after Bangladesh adopted a seven-year National Air Quality Management Plan (NAQMP).
