A COMPREHENSIVE POLICY ANALYSIS ON AIR POLLUTION IN DHAKA, BANGLADESH

According to World Population Review, Bangladesh is one of the fastest growing economies. However, this development is at the cost of compromising with public health, wellness and welfare of citizens. IQ Air (2022) reports that globally Bangladesh is the fifth most polluted country. WHO has identified particulate matter (PM) 2.5 as most detrimental to human health and Dhaka has emerged as the most polluted district. The three major contributors of air pollution in Dhaka are a) Vehicular emission: 40% of the registered vehicles in the country are in Dhaka (Department of Environment-DoE, 2019) i.e., an excess of automobiles, b) brick kilns: in 2018, a survey by DoE found 487 units and all of them were Fixed Chimney Kilns (FCK) which are considered the most harmful for environment and c) climate change: vicious cycle of air pollution and climate change wherein air pollution causes the climate to change through emission of greenhouse gases while climate change leads to inferior quality of breathable air (UCAR 2022). For interventions and policies, Government of Bangladesh primarily works in tandem with Department of Environment, Ministry of Planning and Ministry of Finance. This paper explores possibilities of improvement in existing policies by (a) increasing revenue by removing subsidies on energy (b) imposing carbon tax (c) penalties for environmental violation (d) air quality management and (e) providing accessible health care system.