Residents of Dhaka city did not experience a single day of clean air in June, according to a statistical analysis by the Centre for Atmospheric Pollution Studies (CAPS) at Stamford University’s Department of Environmental Science.

The analysis revealed that the air quality was “unhealthy” on three days, “cautionary” on 19 days, and “moderate” on eight days.

The air quality index (AQI) for June 2024 was 10.46% higher than the average AQI for June over the past eight years. However, air quality this June was better compared to the same month in 2023 and 2022.

Engineer Abdus Sobhan, president of the Environment and Climate Change Movement, told the Daily Sun that civil society and government organisations do not perform their work properly.

“The source of air pollution is changing gradually and now vehicles are the number one source of air pollution in Dhaka city. Besides, different construction works surrounding the city, random biomass burning and some other factors also pollute the air,” he added.

“As a citizen, we are not maintaining our vehicles properly. On the other hand, the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority does not do its duty properly. The gas, water and electricity supply companies dig roads for different development works for a long time without maintaining proper guidelines,” he said.

This year, June stood 3rd in the average air pollution in the last eight years, said Professor Dr Ahmad Kamruzzaman Majumder, chairman of the Department of Environment at Stamford University and Chairman of CAPS.

Average air pollution was reduced by 9.44% in June compared to the previous year, he added.

In the last nine years, out of 270 days in June, the people of Dhaka breathed clean air for only five days in 2017.

The average AQI was 117 in 2024, 129 in 2023, 137 in 2022, 107 in 2021, 92 in 2020, 87 in 2019, 97 in 2018, 92 in 2017 and 107 in 2016, according to the report.

Analysing the 270 days of June collected by CAPS from 2016 to 2024, it was seen that 35 days were “unhealthy” and 137 days were “cautionary”.
Long traffic congestion caused by a failure of traffic management also contributes to more pollution from vehicles, Ahmad Kamruzzaman Majumder said.
An AQI between 151 and 200 is considered “unhealthy” while 201-300 is “very unhealthy” and 301-400 is considered “extremely unhealthy”.

In Bangladesh, the AQI is measured on five pollutants – Particulate Matter (PM10 and PM2.5), NO2, CO, SO2 and Ozone (O3).