Hard to tackle air pollution

Regulators are having a hard time curbing the worrisome rise in air pollution in the country largely because of a “culture of non-compliance” with laws.

Brick kilns operating with pollutant chimneys, rundown public transport plying the roads and construction and development work being carried out without maintaining the standards are making it next to impossible to rein in the pollution.

Bangladesh has experienced the steepest rise in air pollution levels since 2010, according to the State of Global Air 2017 released by the Boston-based Health Effects Institute (HEI) just a couple of days ago.

Concentration of fine particles in Bangladesh increased from 65 micrograms per cubic metre of air (65ug/m3) in 1990 to 92 ug/m3 in 2015, said HEI, an independent research organisation that receives funding from the US Environmental Protection Agency.

"Such deterioration of our air quality is all our own creations. These are totally man-made. No one in the society is complying with the environmental best practices," lamented SM Munjurul Hannan Khan, who oversees the government-run Clean Air and Sustainable Development (CASE) project.

Munjurul said a “culture of non-compliance” was exposing the people to such an unhealthy environment.

He said the culture allows non-complying brick kilns to operate, worn-out and totally unfit buses and other vehicles to run on the streets spewing out emissions and agencies and individuals to transport and preserve construction materials in the open.

Asked about the role of CASE and Department of Environment (DoE) in containing such non-compliance, Munjurul said handing out financial penalties to those vehicles was not bringing out any results as long they were still permitted to run on roads in absence of proper enforcement of road transport fitness rules.

DoE statistics show mobile courts have fined as many as 3,000 unfit vehicles last year for polluting air.

"But things would not improve unless the unfit public transports are taken off the road."

After years of indifference, a multi-agency meeting recently decided to get rid of rundown buses from the capital through a drive starting on March 1.

Munjurul said punitive actions were taken against at least 100 brick kilns in the past year for gross non-compliance. These actions range from clamping fines to cancelling licences. 

The CASE project director expressed deep frustration as the owners of the brick kilns did not care much about the situation and are getting away because of their socio-political clouts.

At times, they continue their business as usual even without any licence whatsoever.

Just a couple of days ago, DoE destroyed four brick kilns in Lohagara upazila of Chittagong as those were using banned “drum chimneys” and had no licence. Sensing presence of the DoE team, workers and owners of the brick kilns fled away. Later, with support from fire service officials, the chimneys were destroyed. DoE also fined 28 brick kilns in Khagrachhari Tk 2 lakh each for operating without licence.

Ijaz Hossain teaches chemical engineering at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet). According to a study conducted by him a few years ago, some 5,000 brick kilns, many of whom burn coal and firewood to produce 15 billion bricks a year, emit nearly nine million tonnes of greenhouse gases.

DoE sources said over 6,000 brick kilns are in operation in the country and over 1,200 of them are within 25km of the capital. Unofficial estimations have the number of legally and illegal-run kilns as high as 10,000 to 15,000.   

"Why should there be so many unauthorised brick kilns in the country? Instead of pollutant Fixed Chimney Kiln, we need to ensure setting up of Improved Zigzag Kiln, Vertical Shaft Brick Kiln, and Hybrid Hoffmann Kiln, which are substantially cleaner, consume less energy and emit much lesser smoke," said a DoE official, wishing not to be named.   

DoE officials said air is also polluted when roads are dug indiscriminately and construction work is carried out without following necessary instructions.

Munjurul said project implementation agencies, contractors and individuals must ensure that they do not transport and keep their construction materials in the open. "These materials have to be well packed inside lidded transport and should not be kept in the open”.