Air pollution in the city
Monday, 27 October 2008
REPORTEDLY, air pollution in Dhaka city still afflicts on average 150,000 people every year. It underlines the acute necessity of new regulations and enforcing the existing rules and regulations to cut down air pollution.
The government might argue that it does not have to allocate additional resources to treat pollution related health problems. Such arguments are irrational. The money spent privately to treat pollution-related sicknesses could certainly be better utilised on useful and productive purposes. The same reasoning applies to governmental spending in the area.
There is no scope to underestimate the pollution-related costs. The number of people suffering from pollution related diseases, are rising in spite of the withdrawal of the most polluting three-wheelers from Dhaka's metropolitan areas. There is an urgent need to take follow-up steps as aged buses and trucks that elude official instructions to withdraw them by repainting to look younger. The owners manage papers from the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) to the effect that they are still roadworthy.
S A Karim
Eskaton, Dhaka
The government might argue that it does not have to allocate additional resources to treat pollution related health problems. Such arguments are irrational. The money spent privately to treat pollution-related sicknesses could certainly be better utilised on useful and productive purposes. The same reasoning applies to governmental spending in the area.
There is no scope to underestimate the pollution-related costs. The number of people suffering from pollution related diseases, are rising in spite of the withdrawal of the most polluting three-wheelers from Dhaka's metropolitan areas. There is an urgent need to take follow-up steps as aged buses and trucks that elude official instructions to withdraw them by repainting to look younger. The owners manage papers from the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) to the effect that they are still roadworthy.
S A Karim
Eskaton, Dhaka