Since the last three decades Bangladesh has been developing rapidly. Exports have increased at an increasing rate and investments both from local and international organizations led to the creation of several new industries and the expansion of current industries. Almost a constant annual GDP (Gross Domestic Product) growth rate of more than 6% per year indicates the degree of economic development and transformation of the country.

However, all this economic progress came with a huge cost. The costs include several types of pollution such as water pollution, light pollution, noise pollution, littering, plastic pollution and the most significant of them all, air pollution. The impacts of air pollution is more prevalent in the urban areas, especially in the country?s capital city, Dhaka. And now it has become a great concern for us citizens in recent years.

The problem of rising air pollution is further broken down into two major causes: Industrial emissions and Vehicular emissions.

Firstly, Industrial emissions are attributed to numerous sources including brick kilns, fertilizer factories, ready made garments (RMG) factories, cement production, sugar, paper and textile mills. All these sources produce massive amount of fumes, smokes, dusts and gases which result in the formation of fog and smog in certain areas. Certain industries such as the Leather tanneries  in the Hazaribagh area of Dhaka city is said to emit harmful chemicals such as ammonia, chlorine, hydrogen sulphide and many other chemicals which are poisonous and thus results in irritation and public complaints.  

With the rapid rate of urbanization taking place in the form of rural to urban migration, the number of vehicles in the streets of Dhaka are rapidly increasing as well. This leads to more air pollution. The Department of Environment (Also known as DOE) and other environmental organizations have identified the two-stroke engines used in auto rickshaws, tempos, mini-trucks and motorcycles as major contributors. Some sources estimate that there are around 650,000 auto-rickshaws in Bangladesh out of which 296,000 are in Dhaka city alone. Many poorly maintained vehicles such as very old trucks and mini-buses are also emitting smokes and gases in the streets of the city. In addition, a large portion of the vehicles in Dhaka are faulty and thus emitting more smoke than the prescribed limit.

In conclusion, such form of economic growth is unsustainable for Bangladesh since it is harming several stakeholders in multiple ways. In the long run, the costs of growth might exceed the resultant benefits. Strong involvement from the regulatory organizations is required to ensure that industries are not harming the environment and that organizations contributing to pollution are punished heavily. At the same time, the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) must ensure that vehicles are properly maintained and that vehicles not meeting the requirements are not allowed on the streets.

After the announcement of the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals), the government of Bangladesh has prepared a new mindset to take the problems. Learning from our past mistakes and replicating the success of other nations will help us to make a significant progress in the attainment of the SDGs.