A Q&A on Air Pollution

What went wrong? What the expert said about the issue. Daily Observer talked with the country’s eminent expert Professor Dr. Ahmad Kamruzzman Majumder. He has been working as an environmental scientist for many years in connection with different environmental issues, Dean at Stamford University Bangladesh. He was a fellow of the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD). He had experience working on the environmental issues of the Himalayas and the Everest region.
Shahnaj Begum, In charge of the Power and Energy page talked with him. He discussed the issues and challenges and potential solutions of air pollution in Bangladesh. We shared the extract of the talks with our valued readers here
Q. Despite various measures, Dhaka has been ranked among the world's most unlivable cities. What have we missed, and why does the city keep losing its standard of living every day?
A: This isn't really about a lack of planning. The real problem is a lack of coordinated implementation and accountability.
We have laws - the Environment Conservation Act of 1995, the Brick Manufacturing and Brick Kilns Establishment (Control) Act of 2013, the Air Pollution Control Rules of 2022. Look, different agencies - city corporations, RAJUK, WASA, the Department of Environment, BRTA - keep working in their own silos with no one coordinating between them. Wetlands, canals, and open spaces keep getting filled in for unplanned construction, which is making both waterlogging and heat retention worse. There's no real oversight of dust from construction sites and roads. Old, poorly maintained vehicles are everywhere because public transport is weak. And because waste collection infrastructure still isn't adequate, open burning continues in many areas. We must understand the difference between having a policy and implementing one.
 
Q: Is population growth a challenge to maintaining Dhaka's quality and standards? How could we manage it?
A: Population growth by itself isn't really the problem. The real issue is that jobs, education, healthcare, and economic opportunity are almost entirely concentrated in Dhaka. According to the UN's World Urbanization Prospects 2025, Greater Dhaka is now the world's second-largest megacity, home to roughly 36.6 million people. And UN projections suggest that by 2050, Dhaka could overtake Jakarta to become the world's most populous city, with around 52 million people.
Central Dhaka's density runs about 23,000 to 26,000 people per square kilometre, and in some slum areas it goes as high as 100,000 to 220,000 per square kilometre. But here's the thing plenty of cities around the world carry much higher density than Dhaka without this kind of collapse in liveability. So, density alone doesn't explain what's happening here. We need to decentralize opportunity, not just population. Cities like Chattogram, Khulna, Rajshahi, Bogura, and Cumilla need really industrial and economic hubs, not just administrative status.
 
Q: You've been working in this field for a long time - coordinating with governments, giving recommendations, organizing thousands of seminars. What have those efforts actually produced? What benefit are people seeing, given that things keep getting worse?
A: This is a fair question, and honestly, the answer is mixed. Awareness, data, and policy frameworks have genuinely improved. But research and seminars were never going to be a substitute for implementation, and it would be dishonest to pretend otherwise.
What has been achieved is real. Bangladesh now has a National Air Quality Management Plan (2024�"2030) and the Air Pollution Control Rules of 2022 - neither existed a decade ago. Under the World Bank-backed Bangladesh Clean Air Project, the Department of Environment is in the process of setting up 34 continuous air monitoring stations and new vehicle inspection centers. Public and media attention to air pollution has grown significantly too, you saw how widely the recent Jahangirnagar University study was covered across almost every major outlet, which itself shows how much public awareness has built up.
It needs an agency that owns it with authority, budget, and a deadline. A lot of what's happened over the last decade has been project-based and time-limited rather than built into permanent institutions. Going forward, every initiative should be held to a standard - baseline data, measurable targets, a named agency responsible for it.
Q. Air pollution is a cross-boundary issue. Several meetings have taken place. Can you share summaries or key points from those with our readers?
A: Publicly available information doesn't let me disclose or verify the details of any confidential meetings. What I can give you is a reliable summary of the forums, frameworks, and stated priorities that are already documented publicly. This matters scientifically because Dhaka, along with much of northern Bangladesh, sits within the larger Indo-Gangetic Plain�"Himalayan Foothills airshed a region where winter temperature inversions trap pollutants close to the ground across national borders.
Q: As an expert, what's your main advice - for us, and for the government?
A: As an expert, my main advice for tackling Dhaka's air pollution centers on three timeframes, moving from urgent enforcement to structural reform. In the short term, I'd urge the government to focus on basic, enforceable discipline fencing off construction sites and covering materials during transport, while coordinating between the City Corporation, Fire Service, WASA, and the Department of Environment (DoE) to spray water every two to three hours during the dry season in the worst-affected areas. I would also strongly urge the government to take swift, decisive action in shutting down illegal brick kilns and replacing them with improved technology and cleaner brick alternatives. 
In the medium term, my recommendation is to implement smart traffic management and parking policies to ease congestion, make modern filtration technology mandatory in industrial zones, and expand environmental education in schools and communities.
Looking further ahead, my long-term advice is to strengthen and strictly enforce national environmental law, increase the Ministry of Environment's budget, and expand air-quality monitoring stations (CAMS) to cover all of Dhaka. And For the public, my advice is practical and immediate: wear masks on polluted days. 
Q: How would you describe the situation outside Dhaka?
A: According to the CAPS nationwide survey, the average level of PM2.5 concentration for the country is 102.41 µg/m³, which is 1.57 times above the national 24-hour standard (65 µg/m³) of Bangladesh. Out of the total 64 districts, only 10 have PM2.5 concentrations below the national standard while 36 other districts face moderate air pollution (66�"120 µg/m³) while 18 districts suffer from high pollution (>121 µg/m³) (CAPS, 2022; The Daily Star, 2022).
Several districts in Bangladesh other than Dhaka were characterized by high pollution levels. Gazipur was the district with the highest PM2.5 concentration (263.51 µg/m³) while the second-highest polluted district was Narayanganj (222.45 µg/m³). Other highly polluted districts included Habiganj, Noakhali, Tangail, Cox’s Bazar, Chandpur, Chattogram and Kishoreganj. The factors causing air pollution in these places include road construction and excavation, mega-development project, brick kilns, industrial operations, exhausts of unfit vehicles and burning of waste. However, the situation varies considerably among districts. Madaripur (49.08 µg/m³), Patuakhali (51.42 µg/m³), Meherpur (53.37 µg/m³) and Rajshahi (56.41 µg/m³) recorded comparatively better air quality.
Q: Why does pollution outside Dhaka matter? 
A: Chattogram, as the country's main port and second-largest industrial city, carries a heavy combination of port activity, industrial emissions, and traffic congestion. Brick kilns aren't just a Dhaka-area problem around 2,000 traditional kilns operate in and around Dhaka, but more than 5,000 others are active across the rest of the country. Agricultural burning, industrial emissions, and unplanned expansion in fast-urbanizing areas like Gazipur and Narayanganj, which are effectively part of the wider Dhaka airshed  all contribute significantly. And fast-growing smaller cities like Mymensingh, Cumilla, and Faridpur risk becoming the "next Dhaka" if construction, vehicle, and industrial emissions aren't managed actively now but they still have the chance to plan ahead instead of just reacting later.