Air pollution has long been more than just an environmental issue for our nation. In recent years, it has evolved into a full blown public health catastrophe.
To that end, according to a study by Jahangirnagar University, that there are over 88,000 premature deaths every year just from across Bangladesh's six major cities should shake our nation to its core.
It is truly a shame how we have normalized the sight of everyday people coughing, children struggling with respiratory infections, and elderly citizens gasping for breath. This normalization is dangerous and unacceptable.
The haze that hangs over us has long been a lethal mix of particulate matter, industrial emissions, brick‑kiln smoke, construction dust, and exhaust from unfit vehicles. While we may have the policies, regulations, and action plans, what we have long lacked is enforcement.
Illegal brick kilns continue to operate. Construction sites continue to ignore dust‑control rules. Factories continue to release untreated emissions. Unfit buses and trucks remain on the roads and look to only be increasing in number. Waste burning continues openly.
It is not that we have not known who the polluters are. The issue is that we continue to do nothing about it, all the while, tens of thousands of lives are lost annually.
Air pollution is a slow, silent killer, but its impact is immediate: Reduced productivity, rising healthcare costs, stunted child development, and long‑term damage to our nation’s human capital.
Let it be known that no country, and certainly not us, aspiring to economic growth can afford this level of self‑inflicted harm.
It is about time the government treats air quality as a national emergency. We cannot continue losing 88,000 lives to inaction. Air pollution is killing us, and the crisis will only deepen unless we respond with urgency and resolve.
