Yet again, in terms of air quality, Dhaka has been ranked the most polluted city in the world. On Thursday, Dhaka's air quality index (AQI) was recorded as unhealthy.
However, with the coming of winter, this is a reading that will be the rule rather than the exception, and will unfortunately only get worse.
Dhaka has been consistently ranked as one of the worst cities in terms of its air quality. As the winter months roll around, this pollution becomes visible to the eye as rounds of smog cover the city. The increased cases of seasonal colds is also a testament to the quality of our air in these months.
A lot of factors contribute to this issue. Not only Dhaka, but the whole of Bangladesh is covered in brick kilns -- many of them illegal. Construction sites don't maintain proper safety measures and leave sand and other hazardous material uncovered and out in the open. There is no proper separation of the industrial zones from the city, something that not only contributes to our worsening air quality, but also causes preventable loss of lives through fires and other calamities.
In essence, we are poisoning our air by design.
This cannot continue. With the coming of winter, proper steps have to be taken to ensure that the air quality improves. We also need to look at long term solutions such as the regulation of brick kilns, construction sites, and industrial zones.
We have been breathing poison for long enough. This has to stop.
